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Canadian Centre for Health Information.
Health Rep. 1992;4(4):367-78.
We compared mortality rates for children and seniors in Canada and the United States in 1971 and 1989. Children in Canada experienced a greater decrease in mortality during this period than did all children in the United States. In particular, while mortality rates for both boys and girls in Canada were higher than those for White children in the United States in 1971, in 1989 the rates for Canadian children were lower. Seniors in Canada experienced a similar or lesser reduction in age-specific mortality than did seniors in the United States. Even though senior women in the United States experienced a reduction in mortality comparable to that of senior women in Canada, Canadian senior women in general had lower level of mortality than their counterparts in the United States. Senior men in the United States experienced a relatively greater reduction than did their counterparts in Canada. The greater decline in mortality for senior men in the United States enabled them to catch up with the lower level of mortality for their Canadian counterparts in 1989. These general conclusions apply whether we compare the Canadian experience to that of the entire population or the White population in the United States. These trends in mortality reductions may reflect the fact that free universal Medicare is available for all ages in Canada, while most publicly-funded Medicare entitlements begin at age 65 in the United States.
我们比较了1971年和1989年加拿大与美国儿童及老年人的死亡率。在此期间，加拿大儿童死亡率的降幅大于美国所有儿童。具体而言，1971年加拿大男孩和女孩的死亡率均高于美国白人儿童，但在1989年，加拿大儿童的死亡率较低。加拿大老年人年龄别死亡率的降幅与美国老年人相似或更小。尽管美国老年女性死亡率的降幅与加拿大老年女性相当，但总体而言，加拿大老年女性的死亡率低于美国同行。美国老年男性死亡率的降幅相对大于加拿大同行。美国老年男性死亡率的更大降幅使他们在1989年赶上了加拿大同行较低的死亡率水平。无论我们将加拿大的情况与美国全体人口还是白人人口进行比较，这些总体结论都适用。死亡率下降的这些趋势可能反映了这样一个事实，即加拿大所有年龄段的人都可享受免费的全民医疗保险，而美国大多数公共资助的医疗保险福利从65岁开始。
