Empirical Studies: Factors Affecting Infant Mortality

Mother's education is an important determinant of her child's health and mortality. Caldwell (1989) explains that a mother's education facilitates her integration into a society impacted by traditional customs. Findings from empirical studies show that educated mothers tend to have healthier babies and a higher probability that these babies would survive to adulthood than their uneducated counterparts.

The residence of the mother plays an important role in the survival status of her child because the lack of infrastructure such as lack of running water and toilets, electricity, basic health care facilities, and poor and unsanitary housing conditions may be life threatening to infants in the rural areas. People in the rural areas typically exhibit characteristics that are associated with a higher risk of infant mortality, such as low educational attainment of the mother, low access to safe water and high proportion of home deliveries.

The occupation of the mother determines the amount of time and care she can offer her baby, and it may also determine the amount of resources available to the mother, and as such her access to various goods and services. Mustafa and Odimegwu (2008) found infant mortality to be higher among women in the non-agricultural sector as compared to them that were either not working or working in the agricultural sector.

Numerous studies have shown that a mother’s age at birth affects the child's chances of survival, the neonatal, postnatal and infant mortality rates exhibit a U-shaped association with mothers’ age. That is, they are high for younger and older mothers and low for women in the middle age groups. Typically, the probability of dying in early childhood is much greater if children are born to mothers who are either too young (less than 18 years old) or too old (greater than 34 years of age) at the time of delivery. Early motherhood of less than 18 years of age is associated with increased likelihood of neonatal death and stillbirth, low birth weight infants, and child and infant morbidity and mortality.

Children born less than two years after a previous birth experience a higher risk of death than children born two and above years after a previous birth for they are more likely to suffer from prematurity and low birth weights. Pregnant mothers with short birth spacing still have very young children requiring attention, and as such may not attend antenatal care at all, or will attend later in pregnancy. On the other hand, women with longer birth intervals may be motivated to monitor the pregnancy and have higher levels of attendance of antenatal care.

The risk of death is higher for first order births, decreases for second and third order births and rises gradually thereafter. Chandrasekhar (1972) argues that a reduction in the size of families and therefore in the proportion of births of higher orders may obviously have some effect upon infant mortality. However, he goes on, the size of the family often varies inversely with the degree of social and economic advancement, the largest families being found in the under-developed areas. High birth order increases infant mortality risks for two reasons: physiologically, because women who have had many pregnancies are more likely to be physically depleted, and behaviourally, particularly where birth spacing is lower, due to constrain on household resources.

References

1. Caldwell, J. C. (1989). 'Mass Education as a Determinant of Mortality Decline' In: Caldwell, J. C. & Santow, G. (eds) Selected Reading in the Cultural, Social and Behavioural Determinants of Health. Canberra: The Australian National University.
2. Mustafa. H. E. & Odimegwu, C. (2008). Socioeconomic Determinants of Infant Mortality in Kenya: Analysis of Kenya DHS 2003. Journal of Flumanities & Social Sciences. Vol. 2, Issue 2.
3. Adhikari. R. K. (2003). Early Marriage and Childbearing: Risks and Consequences. Kenya.
4. Boerma. J. T. & Bicego, G. T. (1991). Preceding Birth Intervals and Child Survival: Searching For Pathways of Influence. Demographic and Health Survey, Volume 1
5. Gyimah, S. O. (2002). Ethnicity and Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana. Discussion Paper No. 02-10.
6. Chandrashekar, S. (1972). Infant Mortality, Population Growth and Family Planning in India. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill.
7. Koenig, M. A.. Phillips, J. F., Campbell. O. M. & D'Souza, S. (1990). Birth Intervals and Childhood Mortality in Rural Bangladesh. Demography, Vol. 27, No. 2.
8. Simal, J. V. (2001). The Main Determinants of Infant Mortality in Nepal. Social Science and Medicine, Volume 53.