Factors Affecting Infant Mortality Rate
Infant mortality is the death rate of infants during the first year of their life. It varies from country to country. In Pakistan, in 2004, it was 77, in Malaysia 11, in Egypt, 38, in Iran, 32 and in Turkey it was 39. There are two important factors affecting infant mortality rate which are biological and environment factors death rate.
Biological Factors
These are also called endogenous factors. Biological factors include age of the mother, order of birth, time interval between births etc. Endogenous factors are biological factors related to the formation of the fetus in the womb. These also includes weight at birth, multiple births or pre-mature births etc. it has been observed that fetus and post-natal mortality rates are high at the young age of the mother like below 19 for the first birth order up to the age of 29, these rates decline and then increase after it. The maturity of an infant is also an important factor.
Environmental Factors
These are also called exogenous factors. These include social, cultural, economic and environmental factors one of the major causes of infant mortality is the lack of availability of medicine. Most of the infant deaths are due to the communicable diseases of digestive and respiratory systems. Such as diarrhea and pneumonia etc. The adverse environmental factors are congestion, insanitation, lack of sufficient sunshine and fresh air. Among the environmental causes an important socio-cultural cause is illegitimacy. There is high infant mortality rate among the illegitimate infants.
