Determinants of Infant Mortality in a Developing Region in Rural Andhra Pradesh

Despite several interventions implemented for the improvement of infant survival, the pace of decline in infant mortality in the State of Andhra Pradesh during the last two decades has been rather slow. This paper examines determinants of infant mortality in a rural population of about 45000 in Medchal region of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Data obtained through continuous (longitudinal) enumeration of household population and also from the cross-sectional survey of households carried out during 2008-09 in the study area were analyzed. A univariate analysis was carried out and followed by an application of binary logistic regression model to identify significant factors associated with infant mortality.

Despite a substantial increase in institutional deliveries in the study area, infant mortality rate remained relatively constant at 43±1. Socioeconomic variables such as education and household economic status and environmental variables such as access to safe drinking water and sanitation facility and use of clean cooking fuel emerged as significant predictors of infant survival.

Promoting institutional deliveries by providing cash assistance to women by itself cannot be expected to bring down infant mortality to a low level in the absence of an improvement in socioeconomic and environmental conditions of the households.