Biodemographic and health seeking behaviour factors influencing neonatal and postneonatal mortality in Bangladesh: evidence from DHS data.

This study findings show primarily - amongst the biodemographic and health seeking services factors, delivery-related maternal health complicacies, blindness, higher order births, twin births, lower household size and interaction effect of higher order live births and male child are significantly correlated with higher neonatal mortality. Neonatal deaths are heavily caused by biological, demographical and maternal experience health hazards during/after delivery. The analysis shows that the causes of deaths after neonatal period are deeply rooted in poverty, regional administrative disparity, lack of breastfeeding, unplanned frequency of births, small interval between births and non-utilization of health seeking services. Education, even maternal, and sex differential have no significant effect as what the literature suggested. But the interaction effect of maternal secondary and above education who residing in urban areas has a negative significant association with neonatal mortality. Increased interval between the births significantly reduced the postneonatal but not the neonatal mortality whereas the relationship between the child's birth order and neonatal is found significantly positive. It is suggested that increasing the length of births interval and the duration of breastfeed lowering the frequency of births should decrease the risk of neonatal and postneonatal mortality. Nutrition factor breastfeeding is negatively associated with postneonatal mortality; as duration of breastfeeding increase the postneonate deaths decrease. Results show that the interaction variable of higher order births and the child is boy has moderately significant positive association with neonatal mortality. Postneonates residing in Sylhet have exceptionally higher likelihood of mortality. Although credit for contributing to the lowering of infant mortality has been given to health programs by public health personnel and to the improvement in socio-economic status by social scientists, but in Bangladesh both of these factors are found to influence early childhood mortality. Maternal and child health program as well as public health and nutrition program should be strengthened to provide modern healthcare services to all pregnant women and their infants.