INTRODUCTION: Improving maternal and child health care are two of the Millennium Development Goals of the World Health Organization. India is one of the countries worldwide most burdened by maternal and child deaths. The aim of the study was to describe how families participate in nurse-based antenatal and child health care, and the effect of this in relation to referrals to specialist care, institutional deliveries and mortality. METHODS: The intervention took place in a remote rural area in India and was influenced by Swedish nurse-based health care. A baseline survey was performed before the intervention commenced. The intervention included education program for staff members with a model called Training of Trainers and the establishment of clinics as both primary health centers and mobile clinics. Health records and manuals, and informational and educational materials were produced and the clinics were equipped with easily handled instruments. The study period was between 2006 and 2009. Data were collected from antenatal care and child healthcare records. The Chi-square test was used to analyze mortality differences between years. A focus group discussion and a content analysis were performed. RESULTS: Families' participation increased which led to more check-ups of pregnant women and small children. Antenatal visits before 16 weeks among pregnant women increased from 32 to 62% during the period. Women having at least three check-ups during pregnancy increased from 30 to 60%. Maternal mortality decreased from 478 to 121 per 100 000 live births. The total numbers of children examined in the project increased from approximately 6000 to 18 500 children. Infant mortality decreased from 80 to 43 per 1000 live births. Women and children referred to specialist care increased considerably and institutional deliveries increased from 47 to 74%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that it is possible in a rural and remote area to influence peoples' awareness of the value of preventive health care. The results also indicate that this might decrease maternal and child mortality. The education led to a more patient-friendly encounter between health professionals and patients. / <p>Article No. 2140</p><p>Funding Agencies|Pravara Medical Trust, India||Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sweden||Linkoping University||County Council in Ostergotland, Sweden||</p>

Adverse birth outcomes have many causes but there is increasing awareness that air pollution is one of them. This study examines the effects of air pollution on infant health and mortality using data from the State of Georgia. The estimation methods control for potential endogenous variables such as the length of gestation and the demand for prenatal care. Moreover dummy-fixed effects are used to control for unobserved neighborhood characteristics using the place of residence of the mother. In addition, the model uses a comprehensive framework, which considers birth weight, length of gestation, and mortality, thus allowing pre and postnatal assessment of the impact of air pollution on health. The empirical results show moderate evidence of an effect of air pollution on low birth weight and length of gestation and found a more substantive effect on infant mortality.

Infant mortality rate is used as an indicator of a nation&rsquo / s economic welfare. Despite the tremendous reduction since 1900s infant mortality rate is still high for developing countries. Infant mortality is reduced from 67 to 21 per 1000 live births in 17 years from 1990 to 2007 in Turkey. However, IMR in Turkey is still much higher than the rates in developing countries which is reported as 5 in 2007. In this thesis, I examine regional, household and individual level characteristics that are associated with infant mortality. For this purpose survival analysis is used in this analysis. The data come from 2003-2004 Turkey Demographic and Health Survey that includes detailed information of 8,075 ever married women between the ages 15-49. 7,360 mothers of these women gave birth to 22,443 children. The results of the logistic regression show that intervals between the births of the infants are associated with infant mortality at lower levels of wealth index. Children from poorer families with preceding birth interval shorter than 14 months or children whose mothers experience a subsequent birth fare badly. Breastfeeding is important for the survival chance of the infants under the age 3 months. Place of delivery and source of water the family uses are also found to be correlated with infant mortality risk. Curvilinear relation between maternal age at birth and infant mortality risk is observed, indicating higher risk for teenage mothers and mothers having children at older ages.

Thesis (M.N.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, School of Nursing, 2001. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 138-148.

This study assessed how early motherhood influences maternal behavior and infant healthin Ethiopia. Data from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2011 were used.Descriptive and Multinomial analysis were performed to observe the determinants of antenatalcare visits and birth weight. Cox regression model was employed for analyzing the risk of infantmortality. Findings clearly show that young maternal age at birth was associated with asignificantly lower number of ANC visits and increased the risk of infant mortality. However,there was no significant difference in the incidence of having babies with a low birth weight byage. Apart from maternal age at birth, education, wealth status, place of residence and ethnicityhad a stronger significant effect on outcome variables.In conclusion, this study demonstrated that young age at birth has an effect on utilizationof ANC service and infant health. For a favorable maternal behavior and infant health outcomewe strongly suggest that the following should be considered-: strong enforcement of minimumage at marriage abided by law, promoting young women’s education, and adequate andaffordable health care services in remote rural areas where health clinics are inaccessible.

During the first two thirds of the 20th century, electricity, running water, and a host of new consumer durables diffused into most American homes. These new household technologies revolutionized domestic life by freeing up time from basic housework. In this dissertation, I study the consequences of household technological change on families, focusing on fertility, child health, marriage, and female labour force participation. Chapter 1 provides a short history of household modernization. I then present an econometric framework for evaluating the effects of household technological change, and discuss the main estimation challenges. To address these issues, I introduce an estimation strategy based on a newly-assembled dataset that captures the rollout of the U.S. power grid during the mid-20th century. In chapter 2, I study the impact of household technological change on fertility and child health, exploiting substantial cross-county and cross-state variation in the timing of when households acquired new consumer durables. Modern household technologies led families to make a child quantity-quality tradeoff favouring quality: household modernization is associated with decreases in infant mortality and decreases in fertility. The declines in infant mortality were particularly large in states where households had relied heavily on coal for heating and cooking, where the potential to improve indoor air quality was greatest. Health improvements were also larger in states that had previously invested heavily in maternal education, suggesting that household modernization led parents to provide better infant care. Overall, household technological change can account for between 25% and 30% of the total decline in infant mortality between 1930 and 1960. In chapter 3, I examine the relationship between household modernization, investment in children, and female employment. I present a conceptual framework in which household technological change has little immediate impact on female employment, but generates increased investment in daughters' human capital, ultimately causing a rise in employment for subsequent cohorts of women. I find empirical support for these predictions. Further, the results suggest that the diffusion of modern technology into the home during the first half of the 20th century can account for a significant fraction of the rise in female employment after 1950.

The thesis examines the problem of infant mortality in Merthyr Tydfil 1865- 1908. In particular it investigates why Merthyr Tydfil, an iron, steel and coal producing town in south Wales, experienced high infant mortality rates throughout the nineteenth century which rose by the end of the century despite sixty years of public health reforms. The historiography of infant mortality in nineteenth-century Britain includes few Welsh studies although the south Wales Coalfield played an important part in industrial and demographic change in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. The thesis argues that conditions of industrial development shaped the social, economic and public health experience in Merthyr, ensnaring its citizens in social disadvantage, reflected in the largely unacknowledged human toll among mothers and babies in that process. The thesis analyses the causes of over 17, 000 infant deaths in Merthyr Tydfil from the primary evidence of an unusually complete series of Medical Officer of Health Reports to identify the principal attributed causes of infant death and explain their social origins and context. The thesis examines the work of Dr. Thomas Jones Dyke, MOH from 1865-1900, who was the author of most of these reports, and assesses his career in public health, but suggests that there were limits to his capacity to address the problem of infant mortality. The analysis showed convulsions, tuberculosis, measles and whooping cough, lung diseases, diarrhoea, nutritional causes of death and infant deaths from antenatal causes of maternal origin to be those which drove up infant mortality rates in Merthyr from the 1880s. From 1902 antenatal causes of infant death, independent of the sanitary environment, and directly linked to the health of mothers, were the only ones still rising. Public health reforms were unable to address the social factors which engendered poverty and ill-health. Large families dependent mainly on male breadwinners had little margin of economic safety. Industrial conflicts in Merthyr revealed the inability of the Poor Law to address the problems of mass destitution in an urban setting. Women experienced few employment opportunities, married early and undertook heavy domestic labour reflected in early death rates for women and high perinatal infant death rates due to the poor health and socio-economic status of mothers. The training of midwives from 1902, with the potential to save many infant lives and to advocate for working-class mothers, failed to do so in Merthyr by 1908. Although specifically addressing the issues of infant mortality in nineteenthcentury Britain, the issues raised are of contemporary relevance since infant deaths reflect many social dynamics of inequality through which infant lives are inevitably sacrificed.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2005.