under-5 year mortality: result of in-hospital study, tehran, iran

in july 2003, the bellagio study group on child survival estimated that the lives of 6 million children could be saved each year if 23 proven interventions were universally available in the 42 countries re-sponsible for 90% of child deaths in 2000. the aim of this study was to determine frequency of important causes of mortality among under-5 year old children in hospitals, tehran, iran. information about mortality data of under-5 year old children from 16 hospitals in the west of tehran was collected. the study period was conducted from 1 october 2005 to 30 march 2006. educated health personnel in each hospital interviewed parents of children who died in hospital and filled out a checklist. 142 under-5 year old children died over the course of study, of whom, 118 (83%) were neonates (under 28 days-old), 53.5% had low birth weights (< 2500 kg), 62 (43%) were girls and 80 (57%) boys. the most common cause of under-5 year death was due to certain conditions originating in the perinatal period (icd-10: p00-p96) (68%). congenital abnormalities (12%) and pneumonia (5%) were the second and third most common causes respectively. among 28-day to one-year old children, the leading cause of death was pneumonia (27.3%), while for children being 1 to 5 years of age, this included pneumonia and chronic hepatitis (about 30%). overall, the most common causes of death were disorders related to short gestation and low birth weight. therefore, achievement of the millennium development goal of reducing child mortality by two-thirds from 1990 rate will depend on renewed efforts to prevent and control low birth weight, preterm delivery, pneumonia, and infectious diseases in our setting.