Imran Bari, Muhammad Zulqarnain, Nayyar Abbas
Introduction: keeping in view of the high infant mortality rates in Pakistan the current study presents the survival probability of infants in relation to various demographic, socioeconomic and environmental factors such as mother’s age at birth, the order of the birth, sex composition of children, wealth index, place of residence, province of residence, birth spacing, access to proper sanitation and safe source of drinking water.
Methods: Data for this study is taken from nationally representative Pakistan Demographic and Health survey (PDHS 2006-07), unit of analysis for this study are the children (sample 7525) who have survived their infant period. Multivariate analysis is used to show the association of child survival with selected variables. Infant survival outcome is defined as the survival of infant in the first year of life, it is recoded as dichotomous variable with the value of 1 for survival and zero otherwise, so for the purpose of analysis Logistics Regression is used.
Results: According to the results almost all the demographic, socioeconomic and environmental factors showed significant effect on the probability of infant survival Conclusions: The study found that mother’s education had a positive and significant influence on infant survival. Maternal age 30+ improved the survival of infants; birth interval came out to significant factor affecting survival of infants suggesting that two years interval enhances the survival of infants. Size of child at birth (average) increased the probability of infant survival, the housing environmental /sanitary conditions like the piped water supply and toilet facilities improved the likely hood of infant survival. (Pak Public Health 2014; 4(1):28-31)
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