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Article: Infant Mortality Rate
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INFANT MORTALITY RATE
The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the ratio of the number of deaths among children less than one year old during a given year to the number of live births during the same year. An infant must adapt to a rapidly changing environment, and death may occur if this adaptation is not successful. Traditionally, this has been expressed by stating that the most dangerous times in the life of a human being are "the first day, the first week, the first month, the first year," in that order. In many regions of the world, the risk of dying within the first year of life will only be matched at the ages of eighty and beyond.
The death of an infant is often dependent on external ...