Mortality among children in rural areas of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

A prospective study on health and mortality of children under 7 years of age was conducted in rural parts of PDR Yemen during 1982-84. Altogether, 2071 children and 976 mothers were followed for 1 year and visited twice. The infant mortality rate (IMR), child mortality rate and under-5 mortality rate were 86, 11 and 129 per 1000, respectively. Sixty per cent of all deaths occurred during infancy. Diarrhoea commonly preceded death during infancy, and symptoms of measles during the 2nd year of life. The mothers of the deceased children were younger than the average rural mother (P less than 0.05) and more often primiparae, whereas illiteracy rates and median income did not differ from families which had not experienced death of a child. The risk of dying within 1 year was three times greater for wasted children in general, but 24 times greater for 1-2-year-olds. No increased risk was found for stunted children at any age. The prevalence of bottle feeding up to 18 months of age was high, and exclusive breastfeeding below 6 months of age was rare in the villages with the highest IMR (P less than 0.05). Infections seemed to be the trigger factor for death, but wasting predisposed to death at least after infancy.