Children Under 5 Years Old Mortality and Associated Factors

Abstract

A Mortality of a child, also defined as under-5 years mortality or child death, indicates the death of children under five or the ages between one month to four years. Many deaths in developing countries go unreported since many low-income families cannot afford to register their babies in the official government registry. A cross-sectional study was conducted in this study for the period of study. This study was carried out from 24/12/2021 to 11/ 3/2021 in two governmental hospitals: AL Zahra teaching hospital and the Al Hakeem hospital in Al Najaf AL Ashraf province. The study sample was children under five years old who were diagnosed with death and living in Al-Najaf province. This study’s findings show that the highest numbers of respondents, 50%, were married at age 13-18 years. 64% of the total number were from rural areas, and according to family income, 60% of respondents had a family income range from 501- 1.000.000 IQD. According to obstetrical history, 93% of women had died fetus 59% of them died in the third trimester. 30% of women had died children under five years of age. 63% of these events happened for different reasons. In addition, 61% of mothers had a medical history. However, 55% of fathers had the same medical history except for liver diseases. Also, there was 16% of parents had an incompatible blood group. According to history using medications, 73% of mothers have a history of medication use