Alam N
Population Studies Centre, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
J Biosoc Sci. 1995 Oct;27(4):393-404. doi: 10.1017/s0021932000023002.
To examine the effects of birth spacing on early childhood mortality, 3729 singleton births in 1983-84 were followed for 3 years in rural Bangladesh. Logistic regression analyses were used to assess whether the survival of older siblings modifies the effect of preceding birth intervals and to see if the effects of preceding and succeeding birth intervals are inter-related, controlling for the effects of sex of the child, mother's age and household economic status. With the exception of the neonatal period, birth spacing effects were highly significant. A preceding birth interval of < 15 months was associated with a greater mortality risk in the post-neonatal period for children with an older sibling who survived infancy. However, a short preceding birth interval did not adversely affect post-neonatal mortality if the older sibling died in infancy. Neonatal and post-neonatal deaths were higher if older siblings had died in respective age intervals. A pregnancy interval of < 12 months after childbirth raised the risk of death at ages 1-2 years considerably if the child was born after a short birth interval (< 15 months). The results suggest that the high mortality risks of closely spaced children are due to sibling competition for parental resources.
为研究生育间隔对幼儿死亡率的影响，1983 - 1984年在孟加拉国农村对3729例单胎出生进行了为期3年的跟踪研究。采用逻辑回归分析来评估年长同胞的存活情况是否会改变先前生育间隔的影响，以及先前和后续生育间隔的影响是否相互关联，并控制孩子性别、母亲年龄和家庭经济状况的影响。除新生儿期外，生育间隔的影响非常显著。对于婴儿期存活的年长同胞的孩子，先前生育间隔<15个月与新生儿后期更高的死亡风险相关。然而，如果年长同胞在婴儿期死亡，较短的先前生育间隔不会对新生儿后期死亡率产生不利影响。如果年长同胞在各自年龄段死亡，新生儿和新生儿后期死亡会更高。如果孩子出生间隔较短（<15个月），产后<12个月的怀孕间隔会显著增加1 - 2岁儿童的死亡风险。结果表明，生育间隔短的孩子死亡风险高是由于同胞间对父母资源的竞争。
