Mortality of Children Under the Age of Five Years Old for the Year 2016 in the Karbala District/Iraq

Abstract

Background: child mortality is a critical measure of the wellbeing of children and a good proxy indicator of the overall level of development. Many studies showed a substantial increase in childhood mortality in Iraq during the last decade of 20^th century as a direct effect of sanctions imposed and the effect of war conflicts. Aims: to describe the associated factors of child mortality during the year 2016 in the Karbala district. Study design: the study is a retrospective descriptive study, sample study is convenience sample consist of (394) a death case. Setting: the study was conducted in office of births and deaths and children's educational hospital - statistics unit / Karbala health directorate. Period: the data collection was carried out from 15^th October to 15^th November, 2017. Results: the results indicated that most of the study sample were at the age group (less than month), males, causes of death (septicemia, birth defect, neurological diseases, heart disease), months year (January, December, February). Conclusions: the findings show that highly significant difference between causes of death and age groups, but the relationships with gender variable was accounted with no significant difference. Recommendations: the most important recommendation of the study is to establish a real policy by the institutions, health centers and hospitals in the period of birth to be preventive and therapeutic and the main goal is to reduce premature deaths that can be avoided by intensive care.

Keywords: Mortality, Children, Age, death.