العوامل المؤثرة في وفيات الأطفال الرضع و دون الخامسة في منطقة الرياض الإدارية

Abstract EN

The study aimed at monitoring the change happened to mortality rates of the children under five years old and infants in Riyadh region.

Moreover, it attempted identifying the geographical variation of these rates, the most prominent factors affecting them, and their future directions.

The study adopted many approaches and methods, including the descriptive approach, which was used in studying and monitoring different aspects of the phenomenon.

It also used the historical approach in tracking development stages of infants and under-five year olds mortality during the period from 2004 to 2017.

Further, the study used the analytical approach to analyze international, regional and local data and information as well as the statistics related to infants' mortality.

Some other methods were used as well, most notably the cartographical method, the study dealt examined the factors affecting under-five year olds' mortality.

The study show 495 children under five died in Riyadh, and study reached many results, most importantly the following: there is a continuous gradual decrease in child mortality rates.

The results also showed that family income has a significant impact on child mortality, where families with a monthly income of less than 5 thousand riyals suffered high rate of child mortality by a percentage of 38% .

Also, the percentage of child mortality in families that live in small units reached 52% .

In addition, marriage to underage girls is considered a significant factor with regard to child mortality, compared to marriage to older girls.

Further, the more mother's age at birth exceeds 40 years, the higher the rate of child mortality is, since child mortality rate for older mothers reached 38% .

The results also demonstrated that there is a high rate of child mortality due to diseases resulting from marriage of relatives, the most prominent of which are: congenital birth defects, sudden death of the fetus, and newborn respiratory distress syndrome, which are among the main reasons for high rates of infant mortality.

There is also a gradual relation between mother's number of births and the risk of child mortality, the more children a woman gives birth to, the higher the risk they face of child mortality.

Finally, there is an inverse relation between mother's level of education and child mortality rates.

Therefore, more attention must be paid to female education, as a high percentage of females do not pursue university education level, they mostly stop after obtaining a secondary school education degree by a percentage of 62% of females, either due to the far distance between their domiciles and the educational facility or due to some customs and traditions.