Socio-demographic factors affecting child mortality in slums of Amritsar city (Punjab), India

Abstract

Introduction: Health of the urban poor is considerably worse off than the urban middle and high income groups. There are thousands of easily preventable child deaths each year. Hence, the current study was conducted to assess the socio-demographic factors associated with child mortality.Materials and Method: The study was conducted in slums of Amritsar city. 50 pockets were randomly selected. Married women in the reproductive age were taken as study subjects. By adopting cluster sampling, 50 clusters of 7 units each were taken from each pocket making a total sample of 350. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to assess the significant factors associated with child death. Confidence limits were set at 95%. The data was collected, compiled and analyzed with the help of SPSS Evaluation Version 19.0. Results: Univariate analysis proved nativity, socio-economic status, Education of mother, type of family and size of family as highly significant factors affecting the survival of a child. But, during multivariate regression analysis, education of the mother emerged as the single factor determining the child survival.Conclusion: As education of the mother is the single significant factor affecting the child survival, efforts should be focused to raise the education standard of women.