It is common knowledge that household income status plays a significant role in the quality of life, nutrition, health care services received, and how long members of households could live before they die. These life-and-death situations are more apparent and salient in infants who are exposed to diverse and vulnerable survival risks at the early stages of life. The study aimed the evaluation of the correlation between the social economic status (SES) of households in China to infant mortality rates. It is based on the presumption that households of lower income status suffer higher infant rates compared to households of higher income status.
The presupposition and understanding guiding the infant mortality rates are that if income status could obstruct and impede a balanced diet and proper nutrition of mothers during pregnancy for lack of resources or affordability of adequate food commodities, then the health of mothers and fetuses was adversely compromised to morbidity and mortality conditions that might result in eminent infant mortality outcomes.
Precisely, two cardinal objectives were crucial in this research: (a) to determine if household income affects IMR in Abia State, and (b) to determine the extent by which different levels of household income decrease or increase IMR.
Thus, the diversified household wealth affects with regards to micronutrient supplements during pregnancy on anthropometry and prenatal mortality. In this investigation, an RCT trial was carried out in 2 rural counties in northwest China among low and high-income groups in which all pregnant females in the villages were allocated randomly for enrolment at the onset of conception until delivery with records of daily supplementation of folic acid, iron, and multiple micronutrients (MMNs) which included additional 15 vitamins and minerals given to each group.
The Impact Of Household Income Status On IMR
The investigation studied the health and survival conditions of infants from these two different income groups. The result of this investigation showed that in the pregnant women from the poorest one-third of the households surveyed, the birth weights of their infants reduced significantly by 60% which accounted for reduced infant IMR of this group by 52%.
The low-income group also experienced increases in the duration of gestation, and reduced pre-term birth hence reduced IMR among the low-income groups. This result was compared to the high-income groups that received the same nutrition treatment.
The study determined that folic acid, Iron, and MMN supplements had no significant effects on IMR in women from wealthier households.
This survey suggested that pregnant women from low-income class could not afford nutrition with all the necessary nutrition ingredients which gave rise to the delivery of babies of low birth weight with chances of survival compared to women from wealthier income classes that could afford balanced diets who experienced no noticeable change in their IMR after the program.
