Babaeei Gh, Azizi P,
Volume 58, Issue 2 (7 2000)
Abstract
Infant mortality and morbidity present important challenges to those concerned with community health. We did this research to study epidemiology of diseases of infancy in city of Tehran. During 15 days, of 6395 deliveries in Tehran hospitals a cohort of 6267 live births entered this study. Follow up data were gathered in 1st, 3rd, 6th and 12th months of birth. In this period, 5382 occurrence of disease were reported. The most frequent were cardiopulmonary (52.3%) and Gastrointestinal (26.6%) diseases. Most of the events were seen in 6-12 months age group (30.5%). The lowest frequencies of infant diseases were seen in 19-35 years of maternal age (15.3%), as compared with >35 (35.4%) and <19 (49.3%) groups. Mortality ratio was 32/1000 live birth (198 death). The most common causes of death were cardiopulmonary (38%), infectious (21%) and gastrointestinal (18%) diseases. Control of infectious disease, development of educational programs for breast feeding and planning of proper age and interval of pregnancy are effective measures for reducing infant mortality and morbidity.
