As part of its agenda to tackle health inequalities, the government set the following target for infant mortality:
“to reduce by at least 10 per cent the gap in mortality between routine and manual groups and the population as a whole”
Infant mortality is a measure of all deaths among infants under one year of age, and is considered to be a good general indicator of the health of the population. Factors associated with infant mortality include maternal lifestyle (including smoking and poor nutrition), low birth weight, maternal age and inadequate antenatal care.
In the three year period 2005-07 a total of 49 infants born to Blackburn with Darwen mothers died in their 1st year of life, a rate of 7.1 per 1,000 live births, which was significantly higher than the national rate of 4.9 per 1,000 live births.
Table 1. Infant deaths under 1 year, 2005-07.
Figure 1. Trend in infant deaths under 1 year.
In 2001-2005 the infant mortality rate of the most deprived 20% of the Borough was 20% higher than the Borough average, while the least deprived 20% was 66% lower than the average.
Figure 2. Infant mortality by deprivation, Blackburn with Darwen 2001-2005
Low birth weight
Low birth weight is a major cause of infant mortality, and is implicated in the subsequent development of a number of diseases in adult life.
Low birth weight is generally a consequence of a pre-term delivery or fetal growth restriction, although important ethnic differences exist. Smoking is the major modifiable risk factor contributing to low birth weight, with the incidence twice as high amongst smokers as nonsmokers.
Local rates of very low birth weight (less than 1.5kg), which are associated with a relative risk of infant death of over 100-fold, are the same as national rates, at 1.5% of births.
However, birth weights of 1.5-2.5kg, associated with a 6-fold increase in risk of infant death, at almost 9%, are significantly higher than the national rate of 6.4%.
