Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Infant mortality in an urban slum

  • Original Article
  • Published:
The Indian Journal of Pediatrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Infant and child mortality are important indicators of the level of development of a society, but are usually collected by governmental agencies on a region wide scale, with little local stratification. In order to formulate appropriate local policies for intervention, it is important to know the patterns of morbidity and mortality in children in the local setting.

Methods

This retrospective study collected and analyzed data on infant mortality for the period 1995 to 2003 in an urban slum area in Vellore, southern India from government health records maintained at the urban health clinic.

Results

The infant mortality rate over this period was 37.9 per 1000 live births. Over half (54.3%) of the deaths occurred in the neonatal period. Neonatal deaths were mainly due to perinatal asphyxia (31.9%), pre-maturity (16.8%) and aspiration pneumonia or acute respiratory distress (16.8%), while infant deaths occurring after the first mth of life were mainly due to diarrheal disease (43%) and respiratory infections (21%).

Conclusion

These results emphasize the need to improved antenatal and perinatal care to improve survival in the neonatal period. The strikingly high death rate due to diarrheal illness highlights the requirements for better sanitation and water quality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Urban India. Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi. Available from: URL: http://urbanindia.nic.in/mud-final site/urbscene/urbgrowth.html . Accessed July 30, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  2. National Family Heath Survey (MCH and Family Planning) 1992–1993. International Institute for Population Sciences, Bombay, India, 1995.

  3. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2) India 1998–1999. Key findings, Mortality, Morbidity and Immunization. International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai, 2000;178–239.

  4. Registrar-General, India. Sample registration System bulletin 1998;32: 1–3.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Awasthi S, Pande VK. Cause specific mortality in under fives in the urban slums of Lucknow, North India. J Trop Pediatr 1998;44: 358–361.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kapoor RK, Srivastava AK, Mishra PK, Sharma B, Thakur S, Srivastava KL, Singh GK. Perinatal mortality in urban slums in Lucknow. Indian Pediatr 1996;33: 19–23.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bhandari N, Bahl R, Taneja S, Martines J, Bhan MK. Pathways to infant mortality in urban slums of Delhi, India: implications for improving the quality of community-and hospital-based programmes. J Health Popul Nutr 2002;20: 148–155.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gupta HS, Baghel A. Infant mortality in the Indian slums: case studies of Calcutta metropolis and Raipur city. Int J Popul Geogr 1999;5: 353–366

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Khanna R, Kumar A, Vaghela JF, Sreenivas V, Puliyel, JM. Community based retrospective study of sex in infant mortality in India. Brit Med J 2003;327: 126.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Thora S, Awadhiya S, Chansoriya L, Kaul K. Perinatal and infant mortality in urban slums under ICDS scheme, Jabalpur. Indian Pediatr 1986;23: 595–598.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Hussain A, Ali SM, Kvale G. Determinants of mortality among children in the urban slums of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Trop Med Inter Health 1999;4: 758–764.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Awasthi S, Agarwal S. Determinants of childhood mortality and-morbidity in urban slums in India. Indian Pediatr 2003;40: 1145–1161.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Anonymous. Measurement of overall and cause-specific mortality in infants and children: memorandum from a WHO/UNICEF meeting. Bull World Health Org 1994;72: 707–713.

  14. Anker M, Black RE, Coldham C, Kalter HD, Quigley MA, Ross D, Snow RW. A standard-verbal autopsy method fot irivestigating causes of’ death in infants and children. World Health Org, 1999; WHO/CDS/CSR/ISR/99.4

  15. Bhargava SK, Singh KK, Saxena BN. ICMR Task Force National Collaborative Study on identification of high risk families, mothers and outcome of their offspring with particular reference to the problem of maternal nutrition, low birth weight, perinatal and infant mortality in rural and urban slum communities. Summary, conclusions and recommendations. Indian Pediatr 1991;28: 1473–1480

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Caleson M, Bos ER, Mawji T, Padmanathan 1. Reducing child mortality in India in the new millennium. Bull World Health Org 2000;78: 1192–1199.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632004, India

    B. Primrose

  2. Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632004, India

    A. Vaid, A. Mammen &  Gagandeep Kang (Professor)

Authors
  1. A. Vaid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Mammen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. B. Primrose
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gagandeep Kang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gagandeep Kang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vaid, A., Mammen, A., Primrose, B. et al. Infant mortality in an urban slum. Indian J Pediatr 74, 449–453 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-007-0075-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-007-0075-1

Key words

Search

Navigation