Mortality, health and infant feeding practices in the northeast Thailand : methodological issues and substantive results

This report contains the major results of the Survey of Mortality Health and Infant Feeding Practices in the Northeast Region of Thailand. The survey which was carried out in 1982 involved interviews with 6821 individuals living in rural areas and 2624 urban residents most of whom were women who had been or still were married at the time of the interview. "The study had the following major...objectives: 1) To estimate infant child and adult mortality levels...; 2) To determine...the prevailing infant feeding practices of mothers in the region and some of the reasons underlying them and 3) To assess the extent of any relationship between infant feeding practices and infant mortality...." The survey "utilized a questionnaire specifically designed to address two important methodological problems characterizing research on the relationship between infant feeding practices and mortality risks." These problems concern the lack of precise information on the age and timing of weaning or death and the possibility of reverse causation in that mortality and illness can affect the feeding regime of an infant as well as vice versa. (EXCERPT)