Infant Mortality Rate in Low-income Countries
The Sustainable Development Goal 3 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to “ensure healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”.
However, many low- and middle-income countries are having higher mortality rate for infant and lower life expectancy in general compared to other higher income countries.
Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of one. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.
The first map shows the IMR of most countries around the world. It changes by years. From the map, we can see the global IMR has decreased from 1990 to 2021 and is predicted to continue to decrease in the future However it’s still higher in low-income countries.
Infant Mortality Rate is an important indicator of the overall health of a society. It also reflects the social, economic, and environmental conditions in which children live. There are a number of causes of infant mortality that vary from country to country, including poor sanitation, poor water quality, malnutrition of the mother and infant, and inadequate prenatal and medical care.
Visualizing the data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) throughout different years shows clearly that there is inequality in health, clean resources and vaccination coverage as well.
One of the main reasons for the high IMR is the lack of vaccination, taking Measles as an example, Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every 2–3 years and measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.
More than 140 000 people died from measles in 2018 (over 300 deaths a day) mostly children under the age of 5 years, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine.
Due to gaps in vaccination coverage, in high income regions of the world such as Western Europe, measles causes death in about 1 in 5000 cases, but as many as 1 in 100 will die in the poorest regions of the world.
Another important fact to focus on is the Health expenditure per capita which is the amount that each country spends on health, for both individual and collective services.
We notice that the low-income countries have the lowest rate compared the other countries such as US and Finland.
This prevents many women of the low-income countries from getting proper and adequate medical attention due to their inability to afford good care
This is also another reason for the high Infant mortality rate in these countries because they don’t give much importance and budget for the country health system
Recommendation:
There are different causes of infant mortality that vary from country to country, including poor sanitation, poor water quality, malnutrition of the mother and infant, Vaccination and inadequate prenatal and medical care. So, in order to reduce the rate, it’s necessary to enhance the standards of living in these countries on different levels:
- Measles vaccination for children, combined with mass immunisation campaigns in countries with high case and death rates, are key public health strategies to reduce IMR
- Improve life conditions by providing an access to a cleaner food and beverage.
- Increasing the delivery services within health facilities
- Health expenditure need be prioritized by laws: Countries that have prioritized policies on health-care expenditure and have high levels of health spending are those that have succeeded in lowering their infant mortality rates
- Encourage NGOs and the other organization to create projects in these countries for employability purpose and providing solutions to the people’s needs.
Validation
- Monitor the world development indicators (e.g., Infant mortality rate, access to clean food, immunization, GDP,, …) in such countries over the next period and see with how much and how these indicators changed after doing these solutions.
Findings/Recommendation
- Reducing mortality rate may lead to Improving labor supply resulting in improved household income and economic well-being of families and communities.
- Trying to reduce inequality between high- and low-income countries will empower and promote inclusive social and economic growth