Bangladesh 1993-1994 Demographic and Health ... - Measure DHS

CHAPTER 7INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY7.1 IntroductionThis chapter presents information on mortality under age five in Bangladesh, specifically on levels,trends and differentials in neonatal, posmeonatal, infant, and child mortality, as well as data on high-riskfertility behavior. The data are disaggregated by sex, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics,division, and other factors in order to identify segments of the population requiring special attention. Thisinformation is useful for monitoring and evaluating population and health programs and policies. Infantand child mortality rates are basic indicators of a country's socioeconomic situation and quality of life.Estimates of childhood mortality are based on information from the birth history section of thequestionnaire administered to individual women. The section began with questions about the aggregatechildbearing experience of respondents (i.e., the number of sons and daughters who live with the mother,the number who live elsewhere and the number who have died). For each of these births, information wasthen collected on sex, month and year of birth, survivorship status and current age, or, if the child haddied, age at death.This information is used to directly estimate mortality rates.childhood is measured using the following five rates:In this report, mortality in earlyNeonatal mortality:Postneonatal mortality:Infant mortality:Child mortality:Under-five mortality:the probability of dying within the first month of life;the difference between infant and neonatal mortality;the probability of dying before the first birthday;the probability of dying between the first and fifth birthday;the probability of dying between birth and the fifth birthday.All rates are expressed per 1,000 live births, except for child mortality, which is expressed per 1,000children surviving to 12 months of age.Examination of data relating to child mortality does not indicate that there are any serious biasesin reporting (see Appendix C.2 for details).7.2 Levels and Trends in Infant and Child MortalityNeonatal, postneonatal, infant, child, and under-five mortality rates are shown in Table 7.1 forfive-year periods preceding the survey. Under-five mortality for the most recent five-year period (whichroughly corresponds to the years 1989-1993) is 133 per 1,000 births. This means that almost one in sevenchildren born in Bangladesh dies before reaching the fifth birthday. Two-thirds of the deaths under agefive occur in the first year of life; the infant mortality rate is 87 deaths per 1,000 births and the childmortality rate is 50 per 1,1300 children age one year, During infancy, the risk of death in the first monthof life (52 per 1,000) is greater than in the next 11 months (35 per 1,000).91