Macfarlane A
Int J Epidemiol. 1984 Mar;13(1):38-44. doi: 10.1093/ije/13.1.38.
In both the newborn and the elderly, medical care is increasingly able to prolong or curtail life. It is difficult to assess what effect this may have on the population as a whole and what implication it may have for the interpretation of both short-term and longer-term changes in mortality. The definition of cut-off points for age groups is critical to the interpretation of the way changes in medical care could affect infant mortality rates.
对于新生儿和老年人而言，医疗护理越来越能够延长或缩短生命。很难评估这可能对整个人口产生何种影响，以及它对于解读死亡率的短期和长期变化可能有何意义。年龄组临界点的定义对于解读医疗护理变化可能影响婴儿死亡率的方式至关重要。
