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( Infant mortality)
Infant mortality is defined as the number of infant deaths (one year of age or younger) per 1000 live births. The most common cause worldwide has traditionally been due to 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. In past times, infant mortality claimed a considerable percentage of children born, but the rates have significantly declined in the West in modern times, 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. [3] The infant mortality rate is reported as number of live newborns dying under a year of age per 1,000 live births, so that IMRs from different countries can be compared. The infant mortality rate correlates very strongly with and is among the best predictors of state failure.[4] IMR is also a useful indicator of a country's level of health or development, and is a component of the physical quality of life index. But the method of calculating IMR often varies widely between countries based on the way 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.[5]
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Infant mortality Subcategories
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