How reproductive history of married women influencing the mortality rate of their children under 5 years in rural areas of Shaanxi province

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current status of reproductive history among married women and the mortality rate of children under 5 years. Influence of reproductive history among married women on mortality rate of their children under 5 years in rural areas in Shaanxi province was also studied.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on reproductive history and mortality rate of their children under 5 years of age in five Fourth National-Level Poverty-Stricken counties in Shaanxi province. Sample under study was chosen according to the three-stage stratified random sampling technique.

RESULTS: A total number of 4 732 married women were studied, with the average age of first birth as 23.65 years, the average parity as 1.49, the average spacing between first and second child birth as 6.96 years and the average spacing between second and third child birth as 3.98 years. In children under 5 years of age among the surveyed women in 2007-2010, 32.19% of the deaths in children under 5 years of age occurred during infancy while 70.21% of the infant deaths occurred during neonatal period. The mortality rates (1/1000)for newborns, infants and children under 5 years were 6.71‰, 9.55‰, 29.67‰ respectively. Infant mortality rate of mother with multiple births was higher than the singletons (χ² = 6.057, P = 0.014). Parity differences in mortality rate of children under 5 years were significant(χ² = 17.469, P < 0.001)and interval differences of births on infant mortality rate were also significant(χ² = 13.137, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Fertility of rural women in Shaanxi was in good condition. The proportion that infant death was accounted for the total deaths of children under 5 years had declined, but the neonatal deaths still accounted for a big proportion of infant deaths. Infant mortality rate and mortality rate of children under 5 years old had declined, when compared to the national level in 2000, however, it was still higher than the city level. In terms of the fertility characteristics in women as multiple births, more parity and short spacing of births etc, were important factors of death of their children under 5 years of age.