Factors influencing infant mortality in Uganda
Abstract
The study on the analysis of factors associated with Infant Mortality in Uganda, with an objective of assessing the socio – economic, demographic characteristics associated with Infant Mortality was conducted. A total of 13,745 0bservation from Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data set were analyzed using STATA to generate the study findings. The results revealed that 4.9% of the women lost an infant in the past 5 years. At bivariate level results show that infant mortality is dependent on the following characteristics i.e. Mother’s age, current marital status, mother’s education level, ANC visits and health care provider during ANC. At the multivariate level, logistic regression analysis result show that women in the following categories were less likely to experience infant mortality as opposed to their corresponding reference categories: women in the age groups of 35 – 49 and women attended to by private health care providers during ANC while women with secondary+ education level, women in the age range of 25 – 34 and ANC visits were more likely to experience Infant Mortality. This implies that high infant mortality rate was associated with older women and mothers who do not attend ANC visits. The study recommends that since during pregnancy, the mother’s health, environment, and experiences affect how her fetus develops and the course of the pregnancy, taking good care of her own health before and during pregnancy, a mother can reduce her baby’s risk of many of the leading causes of infant mortality. Based on the fact that there is a decrease in infant mortality from 5.61% in 2017 (UNICEF, Uganda Demographics Profile, 2017) to 4.92% in 2018