FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH INFANT MORTALITY IN THE METROPOLITAN REGION OF CARIRI, CEARÁ, BRAZIL

The identification of factors related to children’s deaths is very important in planning public health actions for restructure and improve the mother and child assistance, aimed in reducing child mortality.  Objective : Analyze the factors associated with infant mortality in the metropolitan area of Cariri, Ceara, Brazil.  Method : This is a cross-sectional study. All deaths occurring in children under one year old of the metropolitan region of Cariri, Ceara, Brazil, contained in the mortality information system and in live births’s information system, from January 2009 to December 2013. Newborn variables (sex, race/color, weight, age); maternal variables (maternal age and education and type of gestation); assistance variables (labor type) were extracted from the SUS (Sistema Unico de Saude/Unified Health System) Informatics Department and presented in chart and tables in absolute and percentage frequency form.  Results : In the five-year period, 816 infant deaths in 48321 births were registered associated to the following factors: 453 (55.5%) male, 471 (57.7%) drab and 514 (63%) low weight in birth, 458 (56.1%) with 20 to 34 years of age, 353 (43.2%) 8 years or more of schooling, 657 (80.5%) only pregnancy and 414 (50.7%) vaginal birth.  Conclusion : Infant mortality variables in the metropolitan region of Cariri, Ceara, Brazil were associated mostly with deaths occurring in drab boys with birth weight below the normal, whose mothers were young, with good education and who had just one gestation, born of vaginal birth.