BAGUIO CITY – Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) ranks 10th in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) among the 17 existing regions in the country, but has recorded having the lowest Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), being 17th among all the regions.
CAR’s IMR hovers at 8.8 per thousand live births, according to standing vital statistics of the Department of Health (DOH).
Current infant mortality rate in the Philippines is 17.225 deaths per 1,000 live births, a 1.82 % decline from 2023.
The Philippines has an estimated 106.7 million persons. If fertility were to remain constant at levels, a woman in the Philippines would bear an average of 1.9 in her lifetime, the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey explained.
However, the Philippines is below the replacement fertility level of 2.1 children, the survey revealed.
Fertility is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. On average, rural women give birth to 2.2 children in their lifetime, as compared with 1.7 children for urban women.
Fertility is low among adolescents (25 births per 1,000 women aged 15-19). It peaks only at 105 births per 1,000 among women aged 25-29 and decreases thereafter.
If one is to look on how to increase replacement fertility level, it can be gleaned through Population Growth Rate.
In CAR, Population Growth Rate (PGR) by province was noted as highest in Kalinga at 1.62% from 2015 to 2022, followed by Apayao at 0.90%, Abra, 0.84%, Benguet, 0.67%, Mountain Province, 0.49% and Ifugao, 0.48%.
Baguio City posted a PGR of 1.25%.
DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau explained fully that “IMR measures the risk of dying during the first year of life. It is a good index of the general health condition of a community since it reflects the changes in the environmental and medical conditions of a community.”
On the other hand, MMR measures the risk of dying from causes related to pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium. It is an index of the obstetrical care needed and received by the women in a community.
A Philippine Health Statistics prepared by the team of Dr. Gloria Nenita Velasco, Director III, Fe A. Sinson, Statistician III and Lea M. Rebanal, all from the Epidemiology Bureau of DOH starts on Region 1 – Ilocos, with 13.8 baby deaths per thousand live births;
Region III – Central Luzon, 10.8 per thousand live births; Region IVA- CALABARZON, 11.5 per thousand live births; Region IVB – MIMAROPA, 11.2 per thousand live births; Region V – Bicol; 10.5 per thousand live births;
Region VI – Western Visayas, 10.6 per thousand live births; Region VII – Central Visayas, 10.7 per thousand live births; Region VIII – Eastern Visayas, 7.5 per thousand live births; Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula, 7.8 per thousand live births;
Northern X – Northern Mindanao, 10.1 per thousand live births; Region XI – Davao, 11.6 per thousand live births; Region XII – SOCCSKSARGEN, 6.5 per thousand live births;
Region XIII – CARAGA, 8.5 per thousand live births; Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BARM), 5.8 per thousand live births and National Capital Region (NCR), 16 per thousand live births.
IMR is computed as the total number of deaths under one year of age registered in a given calendar year over the total number of registered live births of the same calendar year times 1000.
Overall, the DOH study emphasized the trends needed to cut down infant mortality, which range from maternal care, antenatal care, protection against neonatal tetanus, institutional delivery, skilled assistance during delivery, postnatal care for mother and vaccination coverage.
As for maternal deaths, in NCR, it was 320 per thousand women; CAR, 21 per thousand women; Region I – Ilocos, 72 per thousand women; Region II – Cagayan Valley, 45 per thousand women;
Region III – Central Luzon, 198 per thousand women; Region IVA – CALABARZON, 313 per thousand women; Region IVB – MIMAROPA, 66 per thousand women;
Region V – Bicol, 143 per thousand women; Region VI – Western Visayas, 114 per thousand women; Region VII – Central Visayas, 197 per thousand women;
Region VIII – Eastern Visayas, 79 per thousand women; Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula, 58 per thousand women; Region X – Northern Mindanao, 95 per thousand women;
Region XI – Davao, 96 per thousand women; Region XII – SOCCSKSARGEN, 64 per thousand women; Region XIII – CARAGA, 62 per thousand women; and, BARM, 32 per thousand women.
In like manner, maternal mortality rate is gauged by the total number of deaths from maternal causes registered for a given year over total number of live births registered of the same year, times 1,000.
Latest census by the Philippine Statistics Authority places the population of CAR at a projected 1.722 million persons in its 2020 national census.
State of socio-economic conditions in CAR, aside from its 10th ranking in IMR and fast growing economy with 337.7 billion in Gross Regional Development Product (GRDP), is underscored by the fact that four babies are born per hour in CAR, or 88 babies coming to this world, daily.
In Baguio City alone, an average 16 babies are born daily.
Provinces that registered a rise in the number of live births were Abra, 36.3%, Apayao, 19.9%, Mountain Province, 18.5%, Kalinga and Kalinga with 10.7%.
On the other hand, Ifugao registered a decrease of 4.5% followed by Benguet with 0.6%.
A happy note however in the socio-economic picture was the revelation that life expectancy of women in CAR was projected from the present 69.2 years to 72.7 years, growing at an average annual rate of 0.83%.
On the other hand, life expectancy of males in CAR has increased to 67.4 years from the 63.9 years seen in the year 2000, or growing at an average annual rate of 0.90%.
Other angles contributing to cases of CAR IMR was the finding of high incidence of neonatal deaths occurring during first delivery while decreasing prenatal and postnatal visits have been noted by health personnel.
It was also observed that neonatal mortality was high particularly among the category of middle adolescent women.
Other findings demonstrated a significant correlation between blood testing and abdomen measurement of fundal height measurement provided to respondent women and neonatal mortality in the third trimester.
However, no significant correlation coefficients have been noted between neonatal mortality and completeness of prenatal and postnatal services.
Experts have been trying to analyze the Philippines declining population growth rate and the reasons behind it. The Commission on Population saw underlying causes for the country’s low growth rate as being traced to women’s preference for planned pregnancy, issues of domestic violence and lack of access to family planning and health services in general.
Aside from the economic and financial aspects, mental well-being, adversely affected by the pandemic was also spoken by the experts as also contributory to population slow growth rate.
In conclusion, the commission took note that the economic and psychosocial environment wrought about by the health situation in 2020 played a considerable role in lower population growth rate.
However, the commission failed to draw a parallel between declining growth rate in the Philippines that can result in an aging population as already being experienced by other Asian countries as well as countries in the USA and Europe.
The late 20th century has brought the dawn of global population aging, the climax of decades of working to lower fertility and longer life expectancy and has brought with them a surplus of political, economic and social causes.
For example, a political demography already in the works of many countries has shown that an aging population not replaced immediately will be problematic for the military establishment of any country.
While upping life expectancy and declining birth rates are considered major achievements in modern science and health care, they will have significant impact later.
For example, population observers explained that with a rapidly aging population in countries like the Philippines, a smaller workforce can slow down economies and raise healthcare costs.
Other social and economic risks that can come about to aging population are as follows:
– The squeezed middle age. With more people claiming for social benefits but less people paying income taxes, the shrinking workforce may be forced to pay higher taxes imposed by governments;
-Rising healthcare costs. Longer lives do not necessarily mean healthier lives, with those over 65 years old Filipinos experiencing one or more chronic disease needing long-term care, and;
-Economic slowdown. Changing workforces may lead capital to flow away from rapidly aging nations to younger countries, thus shifting global distribution of economic power.
A given example of an economic slowdown is about Australia and Canada, as well as other countries. Australia and Canada have aging populations with slow birth rates, the reason they want to bring in skilled foreigners to work in their countries.
To keep the population and the economy growing, these countries will have to recruit from other nations so that later on, these workers might decide to seek residency in these countries, which many Filipino workers have already done.
Indeed, the “longevity revolution” that started years back has created tremendous opportunities and tremendous challenges and has even altered some aspects of the structure of Filipino families.
