Infant Mortality
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 03/08/2013 08:48 AM
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INFANT MORTALITY IN NIGERIA
Introduction
An infant is a child less than a year old; although in legal terms, it includes children up to the age of seven. However for the nature and scope of this assignment, my definition of an infant will remain within the medical definition of an infant .Infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of infant (children under one year of age) per 1000 live births within a year in a country. This includes neonatal death rate (occurring within the first twenty eight days of life) and post neonatal mortality rate (from the twenty eight day to the remainder of the first year).Park (2007,p23) clearly points out that Infant mortality rates is seen as a reasonable approximation to assume that the lower it is, the wealthier a country is, therefore it is a basis for comparison between countries regarding health status. Health inequalities are disparities and variations observable in health status of any group of people. According to Graham (2007), these variation in health is a common feature of all societies and cannot be totally eliminated.it is often influenced by the social status of the individuals as people in high social niche tends to have better health than those of lower status (seigrist and Marmot 2006).Nigeria is a highly populated country comprising over 150milon people of varying ethnicity, religion, culture and tradition. Pattern and distribution of health trends and vary within the country and much more when compared to other countries of the world thereby leading to inequality in health .Statistical data by UN (2007) shows that the average annual birth rate is about 5milion and over475,000 of these children die before their first birthday. Infant mortality rate in Nigeria is one of the highest both within the African continent and globally. Park (2007, p.454) noted that more than 40% of infant death occur within the first month of life and a large chunk of global infant mortality comes from the developing world and...
Introduction
An infant is a child less than a year old; although in legal terms, it includes children up to the age of seven. However for the nature and scope of this assignment, my definition of an infant will remain within the medical definition of an infant .Infant mortality rate is the number of deaths of infant (children under one year of age) per 1000 live births within a year in a country. This includes neonatal death rate (occurring within the first twenty eight days of life) and post neonatal mortality rate (from the twenty eight day to the remainder of the first year).Park (2007,p23) clearly points out that Infant mortality rates is seen as a reasonable approximation to assume that the lower it is, the wealthier a country is, therefore it is a basis for comparison between countries regarding health status. Health inequalities are disparities and variations observable in health status of any group of people. According to Graham (2007), these variation in health is a common feature of all societies and cannot be totally eliminated.it is often influenced by the social status of the individuals as people in high social niche tends to have better health than those of lower status (seigrist and Marmot 2006).Nigeria is a highly populated country comprising over 150milon people of varying ethnicity, religion, culture and tradition. Pattern and distribution of health trends and vary within the country and much more when compared to other countries of the world thereby leading to inequality in health .Statistical data by UN (2007) shows that the average annual birth rate is about 5milion and over475,000 of these children die before their first birthday. Infant mortality rate in Nigeria is one of the highest both within the African continent and globally. Park (2007, p.454) noted that more than 40% of infant death occur within the first month of life and a large chunk of global infant mortality comes from the developing world and...