INVESTIGATING THE MORTALITY CAUSES OF 1-59 MONTHS BABIES OF VILLAGE FROM 2012 TO 2015, ZAHEDAN, IRAN

Since the mortality of 1-59 babies is the most serious challenges facing human society and an important indicator of the health and development of countries, providing solutions to reduce this rate as much as possible is of paramount importance. The main objective of the present study is to examine mortality causes of 1-59 months babies in villages under the protection of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences from 2012 to 2015. The present cross-sectional study was conducted through census. The study included the death of all babies registered in Zahedan villages from 2012 to 2015. Required data was collected using raw information form and Child Health Bureau of the Ministry of Health standard questionnaire; SPSS, version 18, was used to process and analyze collected data. The present study examined the death of an overall number of 1252 Zahedan village babies aged between 1 to 59 months; 752 infants aged less than month and this age group turned out to have highest mortality rate; i.e. 60%; the lowest mortality rate, 16.7%, happened in the age group of 1 to 4 years. The most common causes of death included perinatal disease (29.8%), unintentional injuries (17.5%), respiratory system diseases (13.2%), infectious and parasitic diseases (6.5%), congenital and chromosome diseases (6%), and cardiovascular disease (2.5). Since the highest mortality rate, 29.8%, is related to perinatal diseases of infants, couples' pre-pregnancy care and counselling can play crucial role in decreasing the rate of baby, and specially infants, mortality. Keywords: Mortality, 1-59 Months Babies, Rural, Zahedan, Iran.