ARE THERE SOCIAL INEQUITIES IN CHILD MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY IN RURALVIETNAM

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between vario us socio-economic factors, and child morbidity and mortality during a period of rapid social change in Vietnam. One-thousand-one-hundred-and -thirty-two rural mothers with children under 5 years of age were inte rviewed regarding their reproductive history, survival of their childr en, and morbidity of their children under 5 years of age. Causes of ch ild death were established by a verbal autopsy technique. Fifty-seven per cent of the children were reported to have suffered from some illn ess during the preceding 2 weeks. Acute respiratory infection (ARI) (4 6 per cent of all children) was most common. Two-thirds of the sick ch ildren had been treated with antibiotics. Eighty-one children under 5 years of age had died during the 10-year period 1982-1992. Two-thirds of these deaths occurred in infancy, most of them were related to prem aturity, asphyxia or tetanus. ARI was more common in poor families whi le neither education nor occupation were associated with ARI occurrenc e. No significant relationship between education or occupation of the mother and mortality was found. The low under-5 mortality (U5MR) in sp ite of the high morbidity may be related to good child health care bot h by families and by the health care system.