CHILD-MORTALITY AMONG TWINS IN LESS-DEVELOPED-COUNTRIES

Although twins constitute only about 2.4 per cent of total births in l ess developed countries, they account for about 12 per cent of neonata l deaths and about nine per cent of infant deaths. Twin mortality in l ess developed countries has almost never been analysed systematically. We examine survival among twins as contrasted with that among singlet on births by using 2692 twin observations pooled from 26 standardized Demographic and Health Surveys. Weakened by gestational and other biol ogical complications, twins seem to be more vulnerable to detrimental demographic and household socio-economic influences than singletons. T winning tends to amplify, or at least retain, whatever group differenc es exist among singleton births.