Factors Affecting Infant Mortality in Rural Bangladesh: Results from a Retrospective Sample Survey¹

Abstract

The primary objective of this paper is to assess the relative contribution of different socioeconomic and environmental factors affecting infant mortality in a rural area of Bangladesh. Data from detailed interviews with 1,787 women of reproductive ages were collected and analyzed. A multivariate approach was employed to examine the relative importance of different correlates of infant mortality. Birth interval and contraceptive use emerged as the strongest correlates of infant mortality. In addition, landholding size, birth of preferred sex, mother's age, and prior pregnancy loss had significant effects on infant mortality. The analysis suggests that some aspects of childbearing result in higher risks of infant mortality. Infant mortality could be reduced by altering the spacing of births and avoiding births at early reproductive ages. A positive impact on infant mortality could also result from improvements in economic conditions.

Log-Logistic Proportional Odds Model for Analyzing Infant Mortality in Bangladesh

“…A number of socioeconomic, biodemographic, and health-related variables are chosen in this study from the BDHS 2011 data based on some previous studies. 4,[12][13][14][15][16][17] Maternal education (no education, primary, secondary, higher), wealth index (poor, middle, rich), place of residence (urban, rural), region (Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet), membership of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (member, nonmember), Access to media (exposure and nonexposure) are considered as socioeconomic variables. Under biodemographic variables, mother's age at birth (<20 years, 20-30 years, >30 years), sex of child (male, female), size of child at birth (small, average to large), and birth order number (first birth, other than first birth) are selected.…”

On truncated Poisson exponential proportional hazard model

“…Based on previous studies on under five child survival (Chowdhury, 2013;Baqui et al, 1998;Uddin, 2009;Paul, 1990;Mondal et al, 2009;Dancer et al, 2008), following covariates have been selected: age of mother at first birth [Age below 20, Age 20-30 and Age above 30. ], mother's education level [No, Primary, Secondary and Higher] and place of residence [Rural and Urban].…”

Analyzing Infant Mortality in Rural Bangladesh: A Frailty Modeling Approach

“…As a result, it differs substantially between rural and urban areas. Moreover, economic disadvantage, poor transportation systems, and religious conservatism contribute much to infant mortality in rural Bangladesh 5 . In addition, socioeconomic, environmental, ethnical and genetic factors create clustering effect, which in terms influence infant mortality 6 .…”

“…Urban guardians provide better environment for infants than the rural guardians. In contrast, high risk of infant death exists in rural areas because of the lacking of pure drinking water, sanitary and healthcare facilities, high illiteracy, and a high incidence of poverty 5 . Almost all the large surveys in the developing countries collect clustered data in which the clusters are the geographic areas.…”