Analysis of infant mortality: a case study of Mityana District

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the factors associated with infant mortality in Mityana district. The study analyzed: (i) the influence of demographic factors, (ii) the effect of economic factors to infant mortality focusing on those that are applicable to Uganda. A cross sectional descriptive survey research design was employed to explore both the descriptive and inferential statistics in a bid to study relationships between various factors with the use of Likelihood chi tabulations. The study utilized strictly primary data source through interviewing all sampled households so as to gather information relevant in achieving the objective of the research study with the use of well-structured questionnaire. The researcher used purposive sampling technique for selecting households in which the researcher interviewed at least one from each. Only households that had females that had got pregnant in the past three years where chosen. The majority of the respondents were married (42.13%) followed by single mothers (25.28%) and the least were those who never married with (13.48%). 60.69 percent were not employed in any occupation that earn a direct income and 38.31 percent of the women interviewed were employed in different activities that earn them a direct income. 80 percent of the infants had received BCG vaccine and 56.02 percent of pregnant mothers receive tetanus injection less than two times which is below the recommended doze. The study revealed that mothers who are single, never married were significantly associated with child mortality, children who had received BCG vaccine and the distance to the nearest health facility were also significantly associated with the infant mortality. Efforts are also needed to extend Healthy programs in different parts of Mityana district especially in the rural areas where mothers are not highly educated, aimed at educating them on the benefits of Antenatal care, immunizing their babies and mother’s nutrition during pregnancy and also minimizing teenage pregnancies by encouraging the youths to contraceptives or family planning methods.