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SummaryIn order to determine the validity of infant mortality estimates based on retrospective reporting, the Honduran Ministry of Health carried out a follow-up survey of women interviewed in a 1987 national survey. Women were interviewed approximately 14 months after the baseline survey and were asked about the outcomes of their pregnancies and the survival status of their young children. The overall infant mortality rate calculated from the follow-up survey was lower than that obtained from the baseline survey, due to the particularly low rate among the group of women who were pregnant at the time of the baseline survey. Possible explanations for this low rate are discussed.

One of the numerous responsibilities of the government of any country is to invest in the various sectors of the economy. This should, however, be channeled to the appropriate sectors, such as the health sector, that will lead to a continual growth of the country. It is in the light of this, that this study looks at government spending on the health sector and its effect on infant mortality rate (INFM) in Nigeria. Health is central to the well-being of the citizens. This study made an attempt to provide empirical evidence of the impact of public health expenditure on infant mortality rate in Nigeria between 1991 and 2018 using time series data. The Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) analytical method was used to examine the relationships. Various robustness checks were carried out to ensure the reliability of the result for policy makers. Findings revealed that all variables employed positively impacted INFM except for Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus (DPT) immunization and female literacy rate. It was therefore recommended that more public enlightenments on the importance of taking DPT immunization for infants should be embarked upon for the target audience to be able to produce a positive effect, nursing mothers should be educated more on the need to take good care of their children especially at the early stage and not leave chance to the faith of the day care, all in the name of being literate and answering the call of their job at the expense of their parental role among others.

Backgrounds: For more than forty years medical sociology has explained numerous examples of the social patterning of disease. They have shown a strong association between health and socioeconomic status (SES). One of the most important indicators of development in each country is the infant mortality rate, and SES is main determinant for this indicator. This study has evaluated the impact of SES on infant mortality in Shahroud, 2017. Methods: In This cross-sectional study, the information of 4242 children born in 2017 was extracted from the electronic health record with the help of the Data Collection Form. In the first part, the information was about demographics and health care of the household. The second part was related to the household economic status, it was asked to the mothers by phone or in person, including questions about the equipment and tools used by the household. The PCA method (Principal Component Analysis) was used to determine the socio-economic status, and finally, the households were divided into two high and low socio-economic groups. Confounding factors such as mothers' gravidity, history of congenital anomalies in previous children, mother age, history of abortion, type of delivery, the interval of pregnancies, were also used in the study to investigate the effect of SES on infant mortality. Results: Based on our findings, out of 4242 children born in 2017, a total of 21 children died before one year old. The chance of death in children of households belonging to the low SES was 2.93 times more than high SES (CI95% = 1.14-7.54). Conclusions: In general, improving households' socio-economic status can be very effective in reducing child mortality. Government, non-government, and NGO supports can help to improve the economic situation of households and they can help poor families to receive some expensive health services. It is also recommended to promote family health literacy. Keywords: Socio-economic status, Principal component analysis,Infant, Mortality, Shahroud.

SummaryThis study examines by multiple regression analysis the factors influencing district variation in infant mortality rate in Sri Lanka in a given year (1971). It shows that 83% of the district variation is explained by differences in the proportion of the population that is Indian Tamil, the proportion of female employees, and the proportion of females aged 15–19 with at least 5 years of education.

This paper studies the evolution of infant mortality rates in Spanish regions. Our results allow us to reject the null hypothesis of convergence, but we find the presence of several convergence clubs, which implies the existence of different patterns of behavior. We also find some degree of connection between the Great Recession and the evolution of infant mortality rates. The popula-tion density, the evolution of the labor market and the percentage of the female population that admits to having drunk alcoholic beverages in the previous two weeks are the factors that help us to explain the forces that drive the creation of the clubs.

Systematic data on annual infant mortality rates are of use to a variety of social science research programs in demography, economics, sociology, and political science. Infant mortality rates may be used both as a proxy measure for economic development, in lieu of energy consumption or GDP-per-capita measures, and as an indicator of the extent to which governments provide for the economic and social welfare of their citizens. Until recently, data were available for only a limited number of countries based on regional or country-level studies and time periods for years after 1950. Here, the authors introduce a new dataset reporting annual infant mortality rates for all states in the world, based on the Correlates of War state system list, between 1816 and 2002. They discuss past research programs using infant mortality rates in conflict studies and describe the dataset by exploring its geographic and temporal coverage. Next, they explain some of the limitations of the dataset as well as issues associated with the data themselves. Finally, they suggest some research areas that might benefit from the use of this dataset. This new dataset is the most comprehensive source on infant mortality rates currently available to social science researchers.

There is a paucity of research analysing the influence of fiscal decentralisation on health outcomes. Colombia is an interesting case study, as health expenditure there has been decentralising since 1993, leading to an improvement in health care insurance. However, it is unclear whether fiscal decentralisation has improved population health. We assess the effect of fiscal decentralisation of health expenditure on infant mortality rates in Colombia. Infant mortality rates for 1080 municipalities over a 10-year period (1998-2007) were related to fiscal decentralisation by using an unbalanced fixed-effect regression model with robust errors. Fiscal decentralisation was measured as the locally controlled health expenditure as a proportion of total health expenditure. We also evaluated the effect of transfers from central government and municipal institutional capacity. In addition, we compared the effect of fiscal decentralisation at different levels of municipal poverty. Fiscal decentralisation decreased infant mortality rates (the elasticity was equal to -0.06). However, this effect was stronger in non-poor municipalities (-0.12) than poor ones (-0.081). We conclude that decentralising the fiscal allocation of responsibilities to municipalities decreased infant mortality rates. However, this improved health outcome effect depended greatly on the socio-economic conditions of the localities. The policy instrument used by the Health Minister to evaluate municipal institutional capacity in the health sector needs to be revised.

There is a paucity of research analysing the influence of fiscal decentralisation on health outcomes. Colombia is an interesting case study, as health expenditure there has been decentralising since 1993, leading to an improvement in health care insurance. However, it is unclear whether fiscal decentralisation has improved population health. We assess the effect of fiscal decentralisation of health expenditure on infant mortality rates in Colombia. Infant mortality rates for 1080 municipalities over a 10-year period (1998-2007) were related to fiscal decentralisation by using an unbalanced fixed-effect regression model with robust errors. Fiscal decentralisation was measured as the locally controlled health expenditure as a proportion of total health expenditure. We also evaluated the effect of transfers from central government and municipal institutional capacity. In addition, we compared the effect of fiscal decentralisation at different levels of municipal poverty. Fiscal decentralisation decreased infant mortality rates (the elasticity was equal to -0.06). However, this effect was stronger in non-poor municipalities (-0.12) than poor ones (-0.081). We conclude that decentralising the fiscal allocation of responsibilities to municipalities decreased infant mortality rates. However, this improved health outcome effect depended greatly on the socio-economic conditions of the localities. The policy instrument used by the Health Minister to evaluate municipal institutional capacity in the health sector needs to be revised.

Development can be understood from many perspectives. Among those, the one proposed by Amartya Sen states that a development policy should aim at expanding the freedom of individuals, and this goal can be achieved by the expansion of capabilities. With this conceptual framework in mind, health, more specifically infant mortality, is chosen as a measure of development and as the object of study. The Government should guarantee the provision of health services, as they consist in meritory goods. Mosley and Chen (1984) propose a theoretical framework to study infant mortality based on the proximal determinants, in which the socioeconomic factors affect the result observed indirectly. In Brazil there has been a substantial reduction of the average levels of infant mortality rates in the last decades. However, there is still a significant regional inequality. Econometric models for 1980, 1991 and 2000 are estimated including a spatial filter in order to account for the spatial dependency observed in the data. The study concludes that health infrastructure lost its explanative power for the differences in infant mortality rate among the localities. On the other hand, socioeconomic variables have become more relevant and significant. It means that future public policies must try to improve the access of the families to public facilities, reduce poverty and inequality and improve educational levels. Therefore, the family-based prevention against health problems should be stimulated, helping to avoid premature death.