Associated factors of mortality of children aged 1 to 59 months in rural areas of Semnan: A nested case-control study based on 10 years of surveillance data Print

Reduction in child mortality- as an important determinant of health- is one of the Millennium Development Goals. Many of death in children aged 1 to 59 months are preventable. In this study, some mortality associated factors were assessed in children in the rural population, which were covered by the health services sectors of Semnan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. A nested case-control study was performed based on 10 years of surveillance data. The study subjects were the children who died from 2002 to 2012. For each case, two controls were randomly selected from the age-matched children who were alive at the time of death of the case in the same village. To express the association between the death and each of the factors of interest, the odds ratio (OR) was calculated using conditional logistic regression method via stata-9.2 software. The data of 65 cases and 130 controls were enrolled in the analysis. Adjusting for age and place of residence, the odds of death was significantly associated with formula feeding (OR=4.14, p<0.001), low birth weight (OR=2.83, p=0.02), failure to growth (OR=7.04, p<0.001) and prematurity (OR=5.08, p=0.02). Every aforesaid identified factors is expected to be associated with the conditions that those influence on the mortality of children aged 1 to 59 months. Effective efforts focusing better identification and management of them are essential for health promotion in this age group