Causes and Differentials of Infant Mortality in the Pediatrics Wards in Fallujah General Hospital

Abstract

he aim of this study was to estimate the IMR in Fallujah General Hospital, Fallujah city/ Al –Anbar governorate/ Iraq, during the years 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and to study the factors affecting it. This is a review of patient's records involving all live births and deaths occurring from the beginning of January 2007 to the end of December 2011 in FGH. The data were collected from the hospital records, the files of the patients admitted to the neonatal and children hospital wards during the mentioned years, and from birth and death certificates recorded in the hospital. Data collected included name, age, sex, residence, socioeconomic status and date of death .The IMR was 75/1000 live births in 2007, 53.8/1000 live births in 2008, 57.6/1000 live births in 2009 , 49.5/1000 live births in 2010 and 48.27/1000 live births in 2011. About 83.8% of deaths occur during the neonatal period & 16.2% in the post neonatal period. The average IMR was 57/1000 during the studied years, with an average male IMR=68.7/1000 and a female IMR= 44.37/1000. The studied dead infants were 52.8% in the rural and 47.2% in the urban areas. The 1st most common cause of death was the prematurity and RDS in the neonatal period and congenital malformation in the Post neonatal period. IMR was very high during the year 2007 and it didn't show much difference during the years 2008 and 2009, this may reflect the bad social, health, economic services in addition to the security situation during those years.