Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118028

Jiajian Chen, PhD, Research Program, Population and Health Studies, East-West Center, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96848-1601, 808-944-7426, chenj@eastwestcenter.org, Zhengming Xie, China Population and Development Research Centre, Beijing, Beijing, MS, China, and Hongyan Liu, PhD, China Population Information and Research Centre, Beijing, Beijing, China.

This paper aims to assess the socio-demographic differentials in use of maternal and child health care services and their possible effects on infant mortality in rural China during 1989-2000. The data used for this study are based on retrospective reports of birth history on uses of prenatal care and professional assistance delivery and on infant death by women aged 15-49 from the National Reproductive Health Survey, conducted by National Population and Family Planning Commission in 2001. Multilevel logistic regression models are used to analyze pooled data on 19,780 live births born during 1989 and 2000 from 31 provinces in rural China. The results show that use of maternal care services is improving over time, although substantial disparities in use of maternal health care by maternal education and birth parity still exist in rural China. Further analysis of infant mortality based on the same data shows that prenatal care and maternal education are associated with decreased odds of infant death and that female infants with an older sister are at higher odds of dying than being a boy without a sister after taking into account all the selected social demographic characteristics at individual- and community-levels. The findings of this study have important policy implications for reducing the social and demographic inequalities in use of maternal and child health care and excess of infant mortality for all women and children in rural China.

Learning Objectives:

• Improveing maternal health care use and reducing infant mortality

Keywords: Infant Mortality, Maternal Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.