Child survival in Beirut during wartime: time trends and socio-religious differentials.

ABSTRACT

PIP: The authors investigated changes in socioreligious differentials of mortality over time using baseline information from maternity registries in Beirut in 1984 and 1991. Mother's age, number of children ever born, number of children alive, hospitalization class, and religion of newborn were recorded. Brass and Macrae's technique was used to convert the proportion dead among children ever born to mothers in age group 30-34 years into mortality estimates for 1978 and 1985. Using hospitalization class as a proxy for social class, religious differentials in child mortality were explored by logistic regression analysis within each period. A reduction over time of religious-based child mortality differences was observed in Beirut, in agreement with the pattern found for religious-based fertility differences. Relative to other countries in the region, the war in Lebanon has slowed down the decline in child mortality.