Factors Influencing Infant Mortality in Montserrado County, Republic of Liberia

Abstract

Introduction: Liberia’s infant mortality rate is 69.1 per 1000 births, one of the highest in the world. Moreover, in Liberia, about 40,000 children die before attaining the age of five years. Mortality is a major determinant of a country’s productivity; hence, when nothing is done the future is at stake. Methods: This facility based unmatched case control study covered 103 infants who died age less than one year within 17 health care facilities in Montserrado County, Liberia, between the period July 2015 to February 2016. For each case, two controls were selected. The data was collected through reviewing infants’ records in the health care facilities and conducting face to face interview with mothers. Results: 58(56.31%) of the deaths were girls and 45 (43.69) were boys. The leading causes of deaths associated with medical factors were pneumonia 26(25.2%), neonatal sepsis 18(17.5%), diarrhea 17(16.5%) and malaria 15(14.6%). The study showed that parity, birth spacing, distance to health care facility, age of the mother at the time of child’s birth, place of delivery and mothers’ education were significant determinants of infant mortality. Conclusion: Adequate attention should be given to the infantile period as well as care for all infants. National government through health care authorities should place special emphasis on those factors that influence infant mortality and how they can be reduced. Keywords: Infant; infant mortality rate; socio-demography; Montserrado County, Liberia.