If hospitals increase in an area and deaths decrease, which process is affected?

Correct answer: Death process

Direct answer: A, the death process, more precisely the death rate. Hospitals provide treatment, emergency care, prevention and other health services. When these services improve, some illnesses and injuries can be treated more effectively, so the number or rate of deaths may decrease. Step by step, more hospitals mean better access to care; better care can reduce deaths; therefore the population process being affected is mortality, or death. A is correct because it names the demographic process linked with deaths. B is wrong because rivers are physical features and are not the process described. C is wrong because soil formation or change is unrelated to a fall in deaths caused by hospitals. D is wrong because mountain formation is also unrelated. The question does not say that deaths disappear entirely; it says they decrease. Memory cue: hospitals and health care are connected with mortality, while births and migration are other population processes.