Printed in Great Britain Repeatability of Infant Deaths in Korea

Using data from the world fertility survey for Korea, repeatability of infant death in the family was investigated applying the log-linear model. There is a strong association in survivorship between any two consecutive births. No such association is observed in nonconsecutive birth orders. There is a suggestion however, that the survival of the first birth is related to that of the third or even the fourth birth order. Literature presents evidence that late fetal and infant death is associated with a history of previous reproduc-tive wastage in the same mother. Early studies in upstate New York showed a familial tendency to repeat fetal and infant losses.1'2 Heady and Heasman3 revealed that infant deaths in 1949 and 1950 in England and Wales were related to prior death of fetus and infant. In the US, neonatal death was shown to be associated with prior fetal death.4-5 Application of a log-linear model for the 1974 and 1975 US data indicated that the disadvantage of having a prior feta