Open AccessCHILDREN MORTALITY AND FAMILY PATTERNS;
Author(s) -
Mughees Anjum,
Usman Rasool Lodh Lodhi
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the professional medical journal/the professional medical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2071-7733
pISSN - 1024-8919
DOI - 10.29309/tpmj/2008.15.02.2766
Subject(s) - medicine , demography , epidemiology , pediatrics , environmental health , sociology
. Introduction: Some of the mother’s risk factors associated with the infant and childhood death wereinvestigated in Bahawalpur. Objective: To have the knowledge of childhood mortality and family formation pattern inBahawalpur. Design: Cross sectional descriptive epidemiological study. Setting: Quaid-e-Azam Medical CollegeBahawalpur. Period: From January to May 2007. Material & Methods: 320 urban women were interviewed forpregnancy histories and their attitude towards family formation were sought. Results: Early marriage, low educationlevel, and high parity were associated with infant deaths. Thirty-seven percent of urban families and 28.5% of ruralfamilies had lost one or more children, usually all in infancy. Generally half of the deaths were caused by infectiousdiseases. Most women preferred a large family and majority of those who had lost children had replaced them. Nodifference were found between urban and rural women regarding attitudes towards child loss and family formationpatterns. Conclusions: Preventive measures should be adopted to control infectious diseases to reduce childrenmortality.