Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by BROSS, D. S.
Right arrow Articles by SHAPIRO, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by BROSS, D. S.
Right arrow Articles by SHAPIRO, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 115, No. 1: 78-91
Copyright © 1982 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health

research-article

DIRECT AND INDIRECT ASSOCIATIONS OF FIVE FACTORS WITH INFANT MORTALITY1

DEAN S. BROSS and SAM SHAPIRO

reprint requests to Dr. Bross

The relationship between several factors including maternal age, race, education and prior obstetric experience to infant mortality was investigated using vital statistics data from four regionalized networks in 1974 and 1975 and applying the log-linear model. By making a causal assumption, these relationships can be decomposed into a direct component and an indirect component acting through the association of the variables with birth weight. Detailed examination of the interactions between these factors revealed that all of the factors except education could demonstrate a direct component at the 5% significance level in their relationship to neonatal death, while all but birth order had a direct component relating to postneonatal deaths. The strength of the direct components was expressed in the form of odds ratios, leading to a conclusion confirming some earlier reports from these data, but suggesting that births to mothers over 35 years of age have a smaller increased neonatal risk relative to those aged 18–34 years than had been reported previously. In addition, the direct component associated with first births does not show a higher risk than those of birth order 2 and 3. Added risk in this group is traceable to the indirect component. The disadvantage associated with having a prior fetal death is only found among low birth orders, with a possible reversal of the pattern in the high parity group. Analysis of postneonatal risks shows an interaction between maternal age and race, in which births to mothers under age 18 had increased risks only for whites.

birth order; birth weight; fetal death; infant mortality; maternal age; regression analysis

From the Health Services Research and Development Center, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Health Educ BehavHome page
I. Shoham-Yakubovich, J. S. Pliskin, and D. Carr
The Impact of a Health Education Course on Maternal Knowledge: A Comparative Study in a Low Socioeconomic Rural Region
Health Educ Behav, April 1, 1991; 18(1): 145 - 150.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.