Angola

Infant mortality

Welcome to our website. It is generaly simplier version of wikipedia. You will find there selected articles. Enjoy!

It has been suggested that Perinatal mortality be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since February 2009. It is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. Tagged since February 2009. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since February 2009.

World infant mortality rates in 2008

Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths (one year of age or younger) per 1000 live births. Traditionally, the most common cause worldwide was dehydration from diarrhea. However, the spreading information about Oral Rehydration Solution (a mixture of salts, sugar, and water) to mothers around the world has decreased the rate of children dying from dehydration. Currently, the most common cause is pneumonia. Other causes of infant mortality include: malnutrition, malaria, congenital malformation, infection and SIDS.

Infanticide, child abuse, child abandonment, and neglect also contribute to a lesser extent. Related statistical categories:

• Perinatal mortality only includes deaths between the foetal viability (22 weeks gestation) and the end of the 7th day after delivery.
• Neonatal mortality only includes deaths in the first 28 days of life.
• Postneonatal mortality only includes deaths after 28 days of life but before one year.
• Child mortality includes deaths within the first five years after birth.

Infant mortality throughout history

Cemetery at Cades Cove with three graves of infants born to the same parents in 1916, 1917 and 1918.

Infant mortality rate

Infant mortality rate (IMR) indicates the number of deaths of babies under one year of age per 1,000 live births. The rate in a given region, therefore, is the total number of newborns dying under one year of age divided by the total number of live births during the year, then all multiplied by 1,000. The infant mortality rate is also called the infant death rate (per 1,000 live births).

Historically, infant mortality claimed a considerable percentage of children born, but rates have significantly declined in the West in modern times. This has been mainly due to improvements in basic health care, though high-technology medical advances have also helped. Infant mortality rate is commonly included as a part of standard of living evaluations in economics.

Comparing infant mortality rates

The infant mortality rate correlates very strongly with, and is among the best predictors of, state failure. IMR is therefore also a useful indicator of a country's level of health or development, and is a component of the physical quality of life index. However, the method of calculating IMR often varies widely between countries, and is based on how they define a live birth and how many premature infants are born in the country. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a live birth as any born human being who demonstrates independent signs of life, including breathing, voluntary muscle movement, or heartbeat. Many countries, however, including certain European states and Japan, only count as live births cases where an infant breathes at birth, which makes their reported IMR numbers somewhat lower and raises their rates of perinatal mortality.

The exclusion of any high-risk infants from the denominator or numerator in reported IMRs can be problematic for comparisons. Many countries, including the United States, Sweden or Germany, count an infant exhibiting any sign of life as alive, no matter the month of gestation or the size, but according to United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) researchers, some other countries differ in these practices. All of the countries named adopted the WHO definitions in the late 1980s or early 1990s, which are used throughout the European Union. However, in 2009, the US CDC issued a report that stated that the American rates of infant mortality were affected by the United States' high rates of premature babies compared to European countries. It also outlined the differences in reporting requirements between the United States and Europe, noting that France, the Czech Republic, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Poland do not report all live births of babies under 500 g and/or 22 weeks of gestation. The report concluded, however, that the differences in reporting are unlikely to be the primary explanation for the United States’ relatively low international ranking.

Another well-documented example also illustrates this problem. Until the 1990s, Russia and the Soviet Union did not count, as a live birth or as an infant death, extremely premature infants (less than 1,000 g, less than 28 weeks gestational age, or less than 35 cm in length) that were born alive (breathed, had a heartbeat, or exhibited voluntary muscle movement) but failed to survive for at least seven days. Although such extremely premature infants typically accounted for only about 0.005 of all live-born children, their exclusion from both the numerator and the denominator in the reported IMR led to an estimated 22%-25% lower reported IMR. In some cases, too, perhaps because hospitals or regional health departments were held accountable for lowering the IMR in their catchment area, infant deaths that occurred in the 12th month were "transferred" statistically to the 13th month (i.e., the second year of life), and thus no longer classified as an infant death.

UNICEF uses a statistical methodology to account for reporting differences among countries:

Another challenge to comparability is the practice of counting frail or premature infants who die before the normal due date as miscarriages (spontaneous abortions) or those who die during or immediately after childbirth as stillborn. Therefore, the quality of a country's documentation of perinatal mortality can matter greatly to the accuracy of its infant mortality statistics. This point is reinforced by the demographer Ansley Coale, who finds dubiously high ratios of reported stillbirths to infant deaths in Hong Kong and Japan in the first 24 hours after birth, a pattern that is consistent with the high recorded sex ratios at birth in those countries. It suggests not only that many female infants who die in the first 24 hours are misreported as stillbirths rather than infant deaths, but also that those countries do not follow WHO recommendations for the reporting of live births and infant deaths.

Another seemingly paradoxical finding is that when countries with poor medical services introduce new medical centers and services, instead of declining the reported IMRs often increase for a time. This is mainly because improvement in access to medical care is often accompanied by improvement in the registration of births and deaths. Deaths that might have occurred in a remote or rural area, and not been reported to the government, might now be reported by the new medical personnel or facilities. Thus, even if the new health services reduce the actual IMR, the reported IMR may increase.

Global infant mortality trends

For the world, and for both Less Developed Countries (LDCs) and More Developed Countries (MDCs), IMR declined significantly between 1960 and 2001. According to the Save the Children State of the World's Mothers report, world infant mortality rate declined from 126 in 1960 to 57 in 2001.

However, IMR was, and remains, higher in LDCs. In 2001, the Infant Mortality Rate for Less Developed Countries (91) was about 10 times as large as it was for More Developed Countries (8). For Least Developed Countries, the Infant Mortality Rate is 17 times as high as it is for More Developed Countries. Also, while both LDCs and MDCs made dramatic reductions in infant mortality rates, reductions among less developed countries are, on average, much less than those among the more developed countries.

Infant mortality rate in countries

Nearly two orders of magnitude separate countries with the highest and lowest reported infant mortality rates. The top and bottom five countries by this measure (taken from The World Factbook's 2009 estimates) are shown below.

Afghanistan's infant mortality rate is expected to improved by at least 60% in the next ten years due to billions of dollars of international aid.

United States

In the United States, infant mortality is 630 per 100,000 live births or 6.3 per 1000 live births.

Infant mortality rates in the United States per 100,000 live births for 10 leading causes of, 2005

The infant mortality rate for White Americans was 5.7 per 1000 births in 2003-05. For African Americans it was 13.6 per 1000, and for Hispanic Americans it was 5.6 per 1000. Overall, the infant mortality rate for the United States was 6.9 per 1000 in 2003-05. Source from Statehealthfacts.org

Infant Mortality Rate by State (2005)

See also

• Diarrheal diseases
• Rotavirus
• Pneumonia
• Pneumococcal disease

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Infant mortality

• The State of the World's Children 2008: Child Survival
• Infant mortality rate - Country comparison
• The World Health Report 2005 – Make Every Mother and Child Count
• World Health Statistics - Probability of dying (per 1000) under age five years (under-5 mortality rate)
• World Health Statistics - Neonatal mortality rate (per 1000 live births)
• Born in Bradford - a 2006 UK-based research cohort study investigating the causes of infant mortality and low birth rate in Bradford, UK.
• State of the World's Mothers 2006 Up to date 2006 analysis of infant mortality rates published by Save the Children.

v • d • e Death and related topics In medicine Terminal illness · End-of-life care · Autopsy · Brain death · Clinical death · Euthanasia · Lazarus syndrome · Persistent vegetative state Lists Causes of death by rate · List of preventable causes of death · People by cause of death · List of expressions related to death · Notable deaths in 2007 · Notable deaths in 2008 · Notable deaths in 2009 · Notable deaths in 2010 Mortality Immortality · Perinatal mortality · Infant mortality · Child mortality · Legal death · Maternal death · Mortality rate After death Body: Burial · Cremation · Cryonics · Decomposition · Disposal · Mummification  · Promession · Resomation Death certificate · Funeral · Grief · Mourning · Customs · Afterlife · Intermediate state Paranormal Out-of-body experience · Near death experience · Near-death studies · Reincarnation research · Séance Legal Will (law) · Trust law · Administration of an estate on death Other Murder · Genocide · Suicide · Assisted suicide · Fascination with death · Martyr · Sacrifice (Human · Animal) · War · Death (personification) · Death and culture · Category:Death by country · Capital punishment Death Portal