Infant and child Mortality Research Papers (original) (raw)

Greek gynecological and pediatric standards created ideal types. One was
the woman fit to breastfeed, another the newborn fit to be breastfed. This
study examines the consequences of these standards on human lives. Mothers
and newborns who failed to measure up to the ideal were rejected, giving
added impetus to wet nursing, infant exposure and infanticide. These were
aspects of Mediterranean medicine, culture and religion long before Soranos
of Ephesos wrote his gynecological treatise. However, his instructions for
midwives made these ideals and standards explicit and authoritative.
Carried through by midwives, they altered the lives of women and sometimes
ended the lives of newborns. Together these standards contributed to a
recursive dynamic of the displacement of infants from birth mothers, infant
abandonment, and wet nursing that was favorable to class affirmation and to
the maintenance of the slave system of early imperial Rome.

- by
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- Roman Law, Galen, Late Antiquity, Human Pregnancy, Birth And Breastfeeding

Malnutrition is a significant public health problem over the world, with severe impact in developing countries, including Asia and Africa. This paper present to assess malnutrition as a cause of infant and child mortality rate in Torbu community in Bo city, Sierra Leone. We used a community-based cross-sectional survey. A total of 80 mothers with children of under five years were selected using convenience sampling from the different divisions of Bo city. The findings showed that 48 (60%) of the respondents have never been sensitized nor have any knowledge about Malnutrition, of which 16 (50%) were informed via radio while 50 (63%) were not aware of any nutrition facility around the community. Besides, 56 (70%) of the respondents did not practice exclusive breastfeeding, 64 (80%) fed their children on only carbohydrates mainly in the form of rice, and 26 (32.5%) had one meal per day. 64 (80%) reported their children to have been admitted due to malnutrition (with mainly protein-energy malnutrition), while over a half 46 (57%) reported having lost a child to malnutrition. Thus, we recommended more nutrition education to address the poor Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices as well as targeted health interventions to mitigate the devastating effects of child malnutrition in the district.

The use of missionary and other archives can reveal useful information for contemporary planning both by providing sociomedical baselines for understanding change, and by providing practical approaches to development. At the beginning of this century, German Lutheran missionaries in South Pare, Tanzania, implemented a successful campaign to lower child mortality without the aid of modern medical technology. The missionaries achieved this goal through an understanding of indigenous ideas about health and illness, cooperation with indigenous healers, and through communication and mutual learning. By focusing on behaviorally oriented prevention, as well as cures, long-term health care projects based on this strategy may provide more effective basic health improvements than large-scale expensive medical-technological intrusions. 0

- by N. Thomas Hakansson
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- Medical Anthropology, Gender, Christian Missions, Infant and child Mortality

In a context of stark opposition between supporters and opponents to the wolf, the extent to which this particular predator is dangerous for humans is still an open question.
What lies beneath the negative perception of the wolf?
What should be the historian's contribution, based on historical sources and historical methods?
Thanks to a database of 4,700 cases of wolf attacks on human having occurred in France between 1580 and 1880, it is now possible to grasp the chronological evolution and spatial evolution of wolf related risks.
Undeniably real, though mostly belonging to a remote past, and statistically rare, though anthropologically intolerable, these attacks point to two opposite groups, predatory wolves occasionally preying on humans on one hand, rabid wolves striking indiscriminately a whole population on the other.
The attacks of the first kind occurred regularly in an unsafe environment, and gave rise to tales of "Ferocious Beasts" in times of dramatic crisis (1594-1600, 1691-1694, 1746-1750, 1764-1767, 1814-1819).
The second kind was spatially and chronologically less widespread, but sowed the seeds of mass hysteria, all the more persistent since the underlying sickness it forebode remained without a cure before the last third of the 20th century.
The conclusion between these two different realities gave Canis Lupus its negative aura, significantly dimmed recently however since it has entirely lost its material basis, at least in France.

- by Jean-Marc Moriceau
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- Modern History, Economic History, Rural Sociology, French History

Over the last few decades, the impact of the women’s movements within countries and internationally has been central to raising and tackling gender inequality in social development. Arguments have been made that addressing gender equality is imperative for the overall development agenda in terms of economic growth; stability; enhanced productivity and its cumulative effects on other dimensions of well-being, such as education and health, not just women but families (Wold Bank Group, 2015; World Bank, 2011; Giugale, 2011). Despite these arguments, progress and commitment to dealing with gender inequality has been variable and inconsistent because gender discrimination is embedded deep in the culture and structure of social systems. The struggles, strategies and interventions to address gender inequality are in constant negotiation with the underlying structures, socio-cultural contexts and social systems that serve to maintain it, and challenging these aspects often meets with resistance and backlash (Sandler and Rao, 2012). In this ambiguous terrain it is important to understand the extent to which attempts to address gender inequality have been effective in varying contexts and areas of social development, particularly with regard to Millennium development goals (MDG’s) because of its prominence in the international development agenda. To this end, this chapter firstly addresses the complexities involved in measuring gender, as well as the collection and quality of data, as an entry point to the discussion on gender and development, since without measurement we cannot ascertain progress in this area. Second, the chapter utilises some of the core areas of social development to explore the underlying issues that plague progress in the arena of gender equality, through an engagement with some of the MDG’s and to a lesser extent the SDG’s. Finally the chapter briefly engages with the funding and resourcing of gender equality work, since real dedication to development in the field of gender is evidenced by financial and resource commitment. Progress on gender equality to facilitate social development can only be achieved through adequate resourcing and funding. Due to space limitations it is not possible to cover, all social development matters; rather only those development issues that help me illustrate some key points will be extracted and discussed.

- by Shahana Rasool
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- Domestic Violence, Violence, Millenium Development Goals, HIV/AIDS
- by Leonard Rutgers
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- Demography, Early Christianity, Late Antiquity, Imperial Rome

Cet article s'appuie sur une expérience pratique, sur nos connaissances actuelles de la physiologie de la lactation et des besoins nutritionnels du nourrisson, sur des considérations anatomiques, pratiques et affectives, et sur la relecture de données archéologiques, ostéologiques, chimiques et anthropologiques. Premièrement, il défend l'hypothèse selon laquelle une catégorie de petits récipients romains en terre cuite considérés comme des tire-lait sont en fait des biberons. Deuxièmement, une étude de la fonctionnalité de ces récipients met au jour trois fonctions potentielles, qui correspondraient respectivement à une utilisation par des enfants de moins de 6 mois, de plus de 6 mois, et par des adultes. Enfin, des hypothèses concernant le contexte funéraire dans lequel la majorité de ces récipients sont trouvés sont proposées.

In this article attempts has been made to show the achievement of MDG goal 4 in Bangladesh and that is reduction of child mortality rate. Child mortality refers to the death of infants and children under the age of five. About 25,000 young children die every day, mainly from preventable causes. In developing countries, one child in every10 dies before its fifth birthday, compared to 1 in every143 in high-income countries. According to an estimate by UNICEF, one million child deaths could be prevented annually at a cost of $US 1 billion per year. Reduction of child mortality is the fourth of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The objective of the study is to know how far Bangladesh could achieve “MDG Goal 4” of reducing under-five mortality by examining different variables affecting child mortality. The study has done on the basis of secondary data which were collected from different data sources, reports, journals and published literature. So far Bangladesh could achieve the rate more than the expected target. For this reason, Bangladesh has to continue this pace towards reducing the child mortality.

- by Arielle W Bell
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- Health Sciences, Infectious disease epidemiology, Child Poverty, Global Health

and a deteriorating quality of life is significant and particularly evident in the sharp inequities in IMR if one looks at urban specific studies. It is hence, germane to address the appalling inequalities in the distribution and access to basic amenities and health services with a focus on enhanced service coverage, improved sanitation and water supplies and mobilization of community action for effectively mitigating the childhood death and disease burden in urban slums.

- by Siddharth Agarwal
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- Infant and child Mortality, Urban Slums
- by Biagio Simonetti
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- Health Sciences, Infectious disease epidemiology, Child Poverty, Global Health

The overall sex ratio (OSR) at nationwide (the number of females per 1000 males) in 2011 Census has improved by seven percentage points to 940 against 933 in census of 2001. This is the highest sex ratio at the national level since census of 1971 and a shade lower than 1961.However, the area of grave concern remained the lowest ever child sex ratio(CSR) of 914. The provisional data in 2011 Census showed that the child sex ratio (0 to 6) come down to 914 females per 1000 males against 927 in 2001 .It showed a continuing preference for male children to female children in the last decade. Rapid decline in child sex ratio is a serious problem with severe socio-economic, demographic and cultural implication. This paper examines the spatial as well temporal analysis on trends as well as pattern of child sex ratio and its causes of decline, based on empirical data. Some suggestions are recommended for policy implications.

- by Aman Cena
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- Development Studies, Birth Order, Child Sex Ratio, Infant and child Mortality

Background Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential trajectories of child mortality for the next decade, we present the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 findings for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality in children younger than 5 years of age, with multiple scenarios for child mortality in 2030 that include the consideration of potential effects of COVID-19, and a novel framework for quantifying optimal child survival. Methods We completed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality analyses from 204 countries and territories for detailed age groups separately, with aggregated mortality probabilities per 1000 livebirths computed for neonatal m...

- by Yoseph Samodra
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- Health Sciences, Infectious disease epidemiology, Child Poverty, Global Health

Objectives Although substantial reductions in under-5 mortality have been observed during the past 35 years, progress in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) has been uneven. This paper provides an overview of child mortality and morbidity in the EMR based on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Methods We used GBD 2015 study results to explore under-5 mortality and morbidity in EMR countries. Results In 2015, 755,844 (95% uncertainty interval (UI) 712,064-801,565) children under 5 died in the EMR. In the early neonatal category, deaths in the EMR decreased by 22.4%, compared to 42.4% globally. The rate of years of life lost per 100,000 population under 5 decreased 54.38% from 177,537 (173,812-181,463) in 1990 to 80,985 (76,308-85,876) in 2015; the rate of years lived with disability decreased by 0.57% in the EMR compared to 9.97% globally. Conclusions Our findings call for accelerated action to decrease child morbidity and mortality in the EMR.

- by Benn Sartorius
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- Global Health, Infant Mortality, Neonatal Mortality, Infant and child Mortality

Within developing countries, studies addressing the effects of maternity benefits on fertility, infant/child health, and women's labor force participation are limited and provide contradictory findings. Yet, knowledge regarding the implementation of maternity provisions is essential, as such policies could significantly improve women and children's well-being. We add to this literature using fixed effects panel regression from 1999 to 2012 across 121 developing countries to explore whether different types of maternity leave policies affect infant/child mortality rates, fertility, and women's labor force participation, and whether those effects are shaped by disparities in GDP per Capita and Secondary School Enrollment. Our findings demonstrate: (1) both infant and child mortality rates are expected to decline in countries that institute any leave policy, policies that last 12 weeks or longer, and policies that increase in duration and payment (as a percentage of total annual salary), (2) fertility is expected to decline in countries that have higher weekly paid compensation , (3) maternity leave provisions decrease fertility and infant/child mortality rates most in countries with lower GDP per capita and countries with middle-range secondary enrollment rates, and (4) labor force participation does not increase. Our results suggest that policy makers must consider the duration, compensation, and goals (addressing fertility versus mortality rates) of a policy alongside a country's economic development and secondary school enrollment when determining which maternity leave provisions to apply within developing-country contexts.

Objective: Under-five mortality is an essential indicator of the development of a country. In Ethiopia under-five mortality rate is among the highest in the world. Nearly one out of 10 babies born in Ethiopia does not survive to celebrate its first birthday. Material and Methods: The data for the study was obtained from Ethiopian Demography and Health Survey data conducted in 2016. The Kaplan-Meier, Cox'sproportional hazards and gamma shared frailty models were employed for the analysis of under-five children data. Results: Results obtained by fitting both Cox-proportional hazard model and gamma shared frailty model: place of residence, Type of Birth, Birth order, sex of a child and preceding birth intervalwere found to be significant factors. Further more a high risk death of under-five children was found to be associated with place of residence at rural, multiple births, birth order at fifth and above, male children and preceding birth interval less than 24 months. From gamma shared frailty model (θ=0.145) we had enough evidence that the existence of unobserved heterogeneity at the regional level. Conclusion: The findings of this paper highlighted the potential associated with under-five child mortality in Ethiopia. The shared frailty model provided better estimates and also justified the presence of unobserved heterogeneity at regional level. Therefore, special attention should be given to these significant predictors, which ultimately reduce the under-five mortality. ÖZET Amaç: Beş yaş altı ölüm, bir ülkenin gelişiminde temel bir göstergedir. Etiyopya'da doğan neredeyse 10 bebekten biri ilk doğum gününü kutlayana kadar hayatta kalamamaktadır. Gereç ve Yöntemler: Çalışma verisi 2016 yılında yürütülen Etiyopya Demografi ve Sağlık Çalışması'ndan elde edilmiştir. Kaplan-Meier, Cox orantısal hazard modeli ve gamma kırılganlık modelleri beş yaş altı çocuklara ait verinin analizinde kullanılmıştır. Bulgular: Hem Cox orantısal hazard mo-deli hem de gamma kırılganlık modeli uygulanarak elde edilen sonuçlar: ikamet yeri, doğum tipi, doğum sırası, çocuğun cinsiyeti ve önceki doğum aralığı anlamlı faktörler olarak bulunmuştur. Ayrıca beş yaş altı çocuklardaki yüksek ölüm riskinin kırsal ikamet yeri, çoklu doğum, beş ya da daha fazla doğum sırası, erkek çocuk ve önceki doğum aralığının 24 aydan az olması ile ilişkili olduğu bulunmuştur. Gamma kırılganlık modelinden (θ=0.145) bölgesel düzeyde gözlenmeyen heterojenliğin varlığına dair yeterli kanıt elde edilmiştir. Sonuç: Bu makalenin bulguları Etiyop-ya'daki beş yaş altı çocuk ölümleri ile ilişkili potansiyeli vurgulamıştır. Kırılganlık modeli daha iyi tahminler sağlamış ve bölgesel düzeyde gözlenmeyen heterojenliği doğrulamıştır. Bu nedenle, beş yaş altı ölümü azaltmak için bu faktörlere özel ilgi verilmelidir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Beş yaş altı ölüm; Kaplan Meier; orantısal hazard modeli; gamma kırılganlık; sağkalım

- by Prafulla Swain
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- Biostatistics, Survival Analysis, Infant and child Mortality

The dynamics of Bouaflé, an urban locality in the center-west of Côte d'Ivoire, faces a double challenge. On the one hand, the plight related to the mortality of the under-five stands out as a threat to their future. On the other hand, owing to lack of drinking water in the city as well as harmful effects of polluting activities on the local environment, environmental pathologies affect the urban space. From available documents on this city supplemented by field surveys, this study showcases an inventory of the determining factors of infant and child mortality in Bouaflé and highlights the limitations of local governance in the quest for a sustainable development for the capital city of the Marahoué.

Based on anecdotal evidence on girls’ inferior status and the analysis of sex ratios, this article
argues that son preference resulted in gender discriminatory practices that unduly increased
female mortality rates in infancy and childhood in Greece during the late-19th and early-20th
century. The relative number of boys and girls was extremely high early in life and female
under-registration alone is not likely to explain this result. Female infanticide and/or the
mortal neglect of infant girls played therefore a more important role than previously
acknowledged. Likewise, sex ratios increased as children grew older, thus suggesting that
parents continued to treat boys and girls differently throughout childhood. Lastly, the analysis
of province-level information shows that economic and social conditions influenced how the
value of girls was perceived in different contexts, thus aggravating or mitigating female
excess mortality.

- by Michail Raftakis
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- Gender, Modern Greece, Modern Greek History, Health
- by Terence H Hull
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- Infant and child Mortality

The Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) program is a 7-country network (as of December 2018) established by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify the causes of death in children in communities with high rates of under-5 mortality. The program carries out both mortality and pregnancy surveillance, and mortality surveillance employs minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS) to gather small samples of body fluids and tissue from the bodies of children who have died. While this method will lead to greater knowledge of the specific causes of childhood mortality, the procedure is in tension with cultural and religious norms in many of the countries where CHAMPS works—Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. Participatory Inquiry Into Community Knowledge of Child Health and Mortality Prevention (PICK-CHAMP) is a community entry activity designed to introduce CHAMPS to communities and gather initial perspectives on alignments and tensions between CHAMPS activities and community perceptions and priorities. Participants’ responses revealed medium levels of overall alignment in all sites (with the exception of South Africa, where alignment was high) and medium levels of tension (with the exception of Ethiopia, where tension was high). Alignment was high and tension was low for pregnancy surveillance across all sites, whereas Ethiopia reflected low alignment and high tension for MITS. Participants across all sites indicated that support for MITS was possible only if the procedure did not interfere with burial practices and rituals.

- by John Blevins and +1
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- Global Health, Burial Customs, Religion and Health, Religion and Public Health

This study has twofold objectives: (1) to investigate the progress in sex differentials in child mortality in India in terms of within and between group changes and (2) to identify the factors explaining the sex differentials in child mortality and quantify their relative contributions. We have used three rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data, 1992 to 2006. Life table approach and Pyatt and Oaxaca decomposition models were used as methods of analyses. The results revealed that though sex differential in child mortality is still high in India, it declined during 1992 to 2006 (Gini index from 0.36 to 0.24). This decline was primarily led by a change in within inequality of female child mortality (Gini index from 0.18 to 0.14). Among the selected predictors, breastfeeding (40%), birth order (24%), antenatal care (9%), and mother’s age (7%) emerged as critical contributors for the excess female child mortality in India. From the findings of this study, we suggest that any efforts to do away with gender differences in child survival should focus more on within female child disparity across different population subgroups alongside male-female disparity. Implications are advanced.

- by Srinivas Goli
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- Infant and child Mortality

The large and continuous increase in India's urban population and the concomitant growth of the population residing in slums has resulted in overstraining of infrastructure and deterioration in public health. The link between urbanization, a degraded environment, inaccessibility to healthcare and a deteriorating quality of life is significant and particularly evident in the sharp inequities in IMR if one looks at urban specific studies. It is hence, germane to address the appalling inequalities in the distribution and access to basic amenities and health services with a focus on enhanced service coverage, improved sanitation and water supplies and mobilization of community action for effectively mitigating the childhood death and disease burden in urban slums.

- by Siddharth Agarwal
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- Epidemiology, Developing Countries, Health, Medicine

Summary Background Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential trajectories of child mortality for the next decade, we present the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 findings for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality in children younger than 5 years of age, with multiple scenarios for child mortality in 2030 that include the consideration of potential effects of COVID-19, and a novel framework for quantifying optimal child survival. Methods We completed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality analyses from 204 countries and territories for detailed age groups separately, with aggregated mortality probabilities per 1000 livebirths computed for ne...

- by Yoseph Samodra
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- Health Sciences, Infectious disease epidemiology, Child Poverty, Global Health
- by David Diaz and +2
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- Climate Change, Participatory Research, Climate Change Adaptation, Indigenous Peoples

In this paper, we have explored a quantile regression approach to study the factors affecting the child mortality in India. The annual health survey data has been used for application and the results of quantile regression have been compared with those of a linear regression (LR) model. Factors, such as safe delivery, private delivery, mothers' post natal check within 48 hours, breast feeding within 1 hour, full immunizations, fathers literacy rate., etc are found to be significantly associated with child mortality (P value < 0.05). The results have demonstrated that using quantile regression leads to better interpretation and more specific inference about the predictors of child mortality. Hence, we suggest that the quantile regression could be used as an alternative to LR in mortality analysis.

- by Prafulla Swain
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- Quantile Regression, Infant and child Mortality

One of the key objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was to improve the lives of infants and children, particularly the reduction of high infant and childhood mortality rates throughout the developing world. This paper examines the experiences of Malawi in tackling the problem of high infant and childhood mortality over recent decades, 1990–2010. We highlight the strategies that were used in Malawi which led to Malawi's stellar performance in achieving the targets set by the MDGs with reference to infant and childhood mortality. The data for the analysis were obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys and from the various censuses the country has conducted. Regression analysis using district as the unit of observation reveals several important factors that have led to the commendable declines in infant mortality. Significant factors included immunisation of infants as well as increasing levels of female education and the availability of skilled birth attendants. What Malawi's case demonstrates is that given a correct mix of strategies, even a poor country such as Malawi can meet some of the lofty targets set by the MDGs.

- by Imelda Moise
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- Malawi, Mdgs Goals, Infant and child Mortality, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Since 2001 a decentralization policy has increased the responsibility placed on local government for improving child health in Indonesia. This paper explores local government and community leaders’ perspectives on child health in a rural district in Indonesia, using a qualitative approach. Focus group discussions were held in May 2013. The issues probed relate to health personnel skills and motivation, service availability, the influence of traditional beliefs, and health care and gender inequity. The participants identify weak leadership, inefficient health management and inadequate child health budgets as important issues. The lack of health staff in rural areas is seen as the reason for promoting the use of traditional birth attendants. Midwifery graduates and village midwives are perceived as lacking motivation to work in rural areas. Some local traditions are seen as detrimental to child health. Husbands provide little support to their wives. These results highlight the need for a harmonization and alignment of the efforts of local government agencies and local community leaders to address child health care and gender inequity issues.

- by Nick Parr and +1
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- Child health, Local Government and Local Development, Indonesia, Midwifery

Infant mortality rates are of interest to a wide variety of researchers. They are of interest to demographers that wish to understand the basic population characteristics of a country (Eberstein, 1989; Pampel Jr. & Pillai, 1986). These... more

- by Anessa Kimball
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- Research Methodology, Political Science, Human Development, Energy Consumption

Background Many countries have shown marked declines in diarrhoeal disease mortality among children younger than 5 years. With this analysis, we provide updated results on diarrhoeal disease mortality among children younger than 5 years from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) and use the study's comparative risk assessment to quantify trends and effects of risk factors, interventions, and broader sociodemographic development on mortality changes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Methods This analysis for GBD 2017 had three main components. Diarrhoea mortality was modelled using vital registration data, demographic surveillance data, and verbal autopsy data in a predictive, Bayesian, ensemble modelling tool; and the attribution of risk factors and interventions for diarrhoea were modelled in a counterfactual framework that combines modelled population-level prevalence of the exposure to each risk or intervention with the relative risk of diarrhoea given exposure to that factor. We assessed the relative and absolute change in diarrhoea mortality rate between 1990 and 2017, and used the change in risk factor exposure and sociodemographic status to explain differences in the trends of diarrhoea mortality among children younger than 5 years. Findings Diarrhoea was responsible for an estimated 533 768 deaths (95% uncertainty interval 477 162-593 145) among children younger than 5 years globally in 2017, a rate of 78•4 deaths (70•1-87•1) per 100 000 children. The diarrhoea mortality rate ranged between countries by over 685 deaths per 100 000 children. Diarrhoea mortality per 100 000 globally decreased by 69•6% (63•1-74•6) between 1990 and 2017. Among the risk factors considered in this study, those responsible for the largest declines in the diarrhoea mortality rate were reduction in exposure to unsafe sanitation (13•3% decrease, 11•2-15•5), childhood wasting (9•9% decrease, 9•6-10•2), and low use of oral rehydration solution (6•9% decrease, 4•8-8•4). Interpretation Diarrhoea mortality has declined substantially since 1990, although there are variations by country. Improvements in sociodemographic indicators might explain some of these trends, but changes in exposure to risk factors-particularly unsafe sanitation, childhood growth failure, and low use of oral rehydration solution-appear to be related to the relative and absolute rates of decline in diarrhoea mortality. Although the most effective interventions might vary by country or region, identifying and scaling up the interventions aimed at preventing and protecting against diarrhoea that have already reduced diarrhoea mortality could further avert many thousands of deaths due to this illness. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

- by Corey Bills
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology

- by Euripide AVOKPAHO
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology
- by Mphele Mulaudzi
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- Infant and child Mortality
- by Paraskevi (Voula) Tritsaroli
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- Baptism, Byzantine Archaeology, Church, Childhood

This work combines economic and demographic data to examine inequality of living standards in Stockholm at the turn of the twentieth century. Using a longitudinal population register with occupational information, we utilize event-history models to show that despite absolute decreases in mortality, relative differences between socioeconomic groups remained virtually constant. The results also show that child mortality continued to be sensitive to short-term fluctuations in wages and that there were no socioeconomic differences in this response. We argue that the persistent inequality in living standards was possibly due to differences in residential patterns and nutrition.

- by Joseph Molitoris
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- European History, Economic History, Mortality, Social Inequality

The study reveals the problems and setbacks plaguing the health sector in the North West region with emphasis to infant mortality and maternal health. The health sector like other sectors is divided into a relatively backward rural sector with infrastructural problems geographic and economic problems that limits access to women, children and the sick in general and a relatively developed urban health sector where units are owned by the private and public sectors. Poverty, ignorance, cultural and religious beliefs have been identified among the reasons that limit effective implementation of health programmes even where infrastructure is available. Cultural and religious beliefs including the attitude of men towards family planning discourages full participation by women. But a salient reality about participation has been hampered by exclusion of men from sensitisation because the programmes are only meant for pregnant women: and only those who attend clinics in particular. Thus no mechanism has been developed to educate men and school children who would be future parents to allow them get acquainted with family planning programmes. As a result most men view the concept of family planning as something imposed by government to reduce population which is highly seen as an economic resource in both urban and rural settings. Even though the North West region has been commended among regions which have meet the national targets for reducing infant mortality and maternal health problems, this study views official statistics with contempt and unrealistic to field work evidence in rural and urban areas. The argument projected by this study is that official statistics have been limited to areas where women and infants have access or are financially empowered to attend clinical consultations. These statistics could be reflection of reality if most of the women and children clustered in urban and rural areas have direct access to health units. On the contrary most rural women have no access to healthcare units as a result of environmental and socioeconomic difficulties championed by rural poverty caused by inadequate resources that yield income. The present study draws a vast dichotomy between theory and realities on the field. Thus though official statistics indicate successes for the North West region problems exist that must be tackled through official interventions which could help in increasing access to urban and rural women and children.

- by Ashish Awasthi
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology
- by Davood Anvari
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- Health Sciences, Infectious disease epidemiology, Child Poverty, Global Health

Background Despite large reductions in under-5 lower respiratory infection (LRI) mortality in many locations, the pace of progress for LRIs has generally lagged behind that of other childhood infectious diseases. To better inform programmes and policies focused on preventing and treating LRIs, we assessed the contributions and patterns of risk factor attribution, intervention coverage, and sociodemographic development in 195 countries and territories by drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) LRI estimates. Methods We used four strategies to model LRI burden: the mortality due to LRIs was modelled using vital registration data, demographic surveillance data, and verbal autopsy data in a predictive ensemble modelling tool; the incidence of LRIs was modelled using population representative surveys, health-care utilisation data, and scientific literature in a compartmental meta-regression tool; the attribution of risk factors for LRI...

- by Gulfaraz Khan
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology

- by Ravi jha
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology

Child mortality is generally credited as a surrogate marker for the quality of care within a health service. However, if mortality rates are to be used as an indicator of quality of care, or to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programmes aimed at improving child health and the quality of health care, it is critical that this data is accurate. The quality of data routinely collected in the South African health system
is extremely variable. While data from primary health care clinics are generally good, that from hospitals is poor and data from the vital registration process is often incomplete.
This chapter describes five data sources currently in use in South Africa that assist in the monitoring of child mortality rates. In order to facilitate an improvement in the quality of these datasets, the available data has been used to present a profile of child mortality in 2007.
The year 2007 has been selected as this is the most recent year for which data from the death registration programme are available and is therefore the only year for which data are available from all five data sources. It is accepted that these data are incomplete and that some datasets have improved in subsequent years. However, by using these data the authors hope to stimulate reflection on the data as well as to
precipitate improved data collection.

- by Mphele Mulaudzi
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- Infant and child Mortality

A negative association between birth interval length and infant and child mortality has been consistently identified in modern developing countries. The reasons for this association are unclear, however. Leading hypotheses linking interval length to mortality fall into four broad categories—sibling competition, maternal depletion, infection transmission, or unobserved maternal factors—but none has received overwhelming support. Using data from Stockholm between 1878 and 1926, this study identifies trends in the relationship over time, controlling for unobserved maternal heterogeneity, and exploiting sibling deaths to better understand the mechanisms at work. Results show that the association disappeared over time as infectious disease mortality fell and that deaths of previous siblings during the postnatal period disproportionately tended to increase the risk of dying among index children born after short intervals. These findings strongly suggest the relationship is related to the transmission of disease between closely spaced siblings.

- by Joseph Molitoris
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- European History, Demography, Sweden, Fixed-Effects Models

This paper uses municipality level data to estimate the general relationships between climate, income and child mortality in Mexico. Climate was found to play only a very minor role in explaining the large differences in income levels and child mortality rates observed in Mexico. This implies that Mexico is considerably less vulnerable to expected future climate change than other countries in Latin America.

- by INESAD Bolivia
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- Future Studies, Social Change, Environmental Science, Climate Change

BACKGROUND: Large-scale population studies demonstrate an association between mothers' deaths and child mortality in both lower and higher income countries. The authors estimated children's deaths in association with mothers' deaths from breast or cervical cancer, 2 common cancers in low-income and middle-income countries affecting women of reproductive age, to develop a comprehensive assessment of the death burden of these cancers. METHODS: A Monte Carlo simulation model was devised whereby women were at risk of dying from breast cancer, cervical cancer, or another cause. Compared with children who have living mothers, children of women who die before they reached age 10 years have an elevated risk of death from all causes. Therefore, simulations were conducted, and the impact of mothers' deaths from cervical and breast cancer on associated child mortality was quantified for Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, and Denmark (benchmark analysis), then the analyses were extended to all African countries. RESULTS: Benchmark estimates of child deaths associated with mothers' deaths from breast and cervical cancer resulted in an increment in cancer-related mortality of approximately 2% in Bangladesh, 14% in Burkina Faso, and less than 1% in Denmark. The model predicted an increment in comprehensive cancer deaths when including child death estimates by as high as 30% in certain African countries. CONCLUSIONS: To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to estimate the impact of a mother's death from cancer on child mortality. The model's estimates call for further investigation into this correlation and underscore the relevance of adequate access to prevention and treatment among women of childbearing age.

- by Ophira Ginsburg
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- Global Health, Cancer, Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer

- by Muawiyyah Sufiyan
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- Health Sciences, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Infectious disease epidemiology