Question

Define the IMR.

Answer 1

IMR is not only a statistical group, but it also reflects socio-economic progress and ultimately reflects the role of medical services in nations. The IMR is an important resource for the health group to make recommendations based on the reallocation of medical services.

Complete answer:
The IMR is an abbreviated form of infant mortality rate. Infant mortality is defined as the death of young children under the age of one. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate, which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per thousand live births. The under-five mortality rate, which is referred to as the child mortality rate, is also an important statistic, considering the infant mortality rate focuses only on children under the age of one.

Forms of infant mortality are as follows:
- Perinatal mortality is late fetal death or death of a newborn up to one week postpartum.
- Neonatal mortality is newborn death occurring within twenty-eight days of postpartum. It is often attributed to inadequate access to basic medical care, during pregnancy and after delivery. This accounts for almost forty to sixty per cent of infant mortality in developing countries.
- Post neonatal mortality is the death of children aged twenty-nine days to one year. The major contributors to postneonatal death are malnutrition, infectious disease, troubled pregnancy, sudden infant death syndrome and problems with the home environment.

Note: Causes of infant mortality leads to death. Environmental and social barriers prevent access to basic medical resources and thereby contributes to an increasing infant mortality rate; ninety-nine percentage of infant deaths occur in developing countries and eighty-six per cent of these deaths are because of infections, premature births, complications during delivery, and perinatal asphyxia and birth injuries.