MST-Department of Geography

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Browsing MST-Department of Geography by Subject "Chepalungu"

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    Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in Chepalungu Bomet County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2021) Mutai, Jane Chepkurui; Leonard M Kisovi; Francis O. Onsongo
    Globally, the infant mortality rate is regarded as an important indicator of understanding population health and it stands as high as 31.9%. The rate varies substantially across the world with the highest found in sub-Saharan Africa. In Bomet, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) stands higher compared with the national average. The high Infant Mortality Rate is said to have been attributed by various factors such as poor livelihood and health opportunities. These have a tendency of deteriorating living conditions leading to prevailing low standards of living and raised living costs which has risen cost of protein rich food rendering communities poor malnutrition and susceptible to infection. Despite the renewed focus and recent progress in infant mortality, achieving the sustainable development goal (SDG) target in infant mortality of 25 deaths per 1000 live births will be a challenge unless factors influencing infant mortality receive more attention. It has also been observed that infant mortality in Chepalungu Sub County is not an exemption since infant mortality in Bomet County is higher at 57 per 1000 compared with the National average of 54 per 1000. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish determinants of high infant mortality in Chepalungu sub-county. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Descriptive survey research design describes the distribution of and relationship among variables. The study targeted all household mothers in the reproductive ages 18-49 and key informants in Chepalungu sub-county. Purposive and Stratified simple random sampling techniques were used to select 381 mothers and 4 key informants in Chepalungu Sub-County. Data was collected using questionnaire and interview schedule. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, and Chi-square test while qualitative data was coded, transcribed and organized thematically. The study findings may form a platform upon which demographic and health policy may be formulated and may be useful to other future researchers. The study concluded that high infant mortality was attributable to low level of education of the mothers, large household sizes, difficulty in access to health facilities, mothers‟ and spouses‟ incomes, place of delivery and type of marriage contrary, place for medical attention for infants does not have any effect on infant mortality. Further, environmental factors had a great bearing on infant health and as such explain infant mortality. The study recommends that the communities within Chepalungu Sub County ought to embrace family planning practices as a way to control their household numbers. This is because a household with few individuals is capable to meet medical needs thereby registering lower infant deaths. Study also recommended that residents in Chepalungu should be encouraged to engage in income generating activities besides subsistence farming. This will enable them to have some income necessary for providing for the infant needs including nutrition and medical needs. Furthermore, campaign programs should be designed with an aim of discouraging unfair cultural practices that promote infant mortality. Such campaigns can encourage the mothers to seek delivery at the health facilities. This can be done through community health volunteers, increasing number of dispensaries and providing ambulances. Lastly, the study recommended the need to conduct environmental education program targeting the mothers on the human waste disposal, safe drinking water and safe cooking fuel. Future research should be conducted to include: causes of infant mortality, biological factors influencing infant mortality and climatic determinants of infant mortality by region.