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<art><ui>1471-2458-12-S2-A23</ui><ji>1471-2458</ji><fm>
<dochead>Meeting abstract</dochead>
<bibl>
<title>
<p>Health systems, policies and infant mortality in developing countries</p>
</title>
<aug>
<au ca="yes" id="A1"><snm>Baguma</snm><fnm>David</fnm><insr iid="I1"/></au>
<au id="A2"><snm>Hashim</snm><mnm>Hisham</mnm><fnm>Jamal</fnm><insr iid="I1"/></au>
<au id="A3"><snm>Aljunid</snm><mnm>Mohamed</mnm><fnm>Syed</fnm><insr iid="I1"/></au>
</aug>
<insg>
<ins id="I1"><p>United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Jalan Yaacob Latiff, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia</p></ins>
</insg>
<source>BMC Public Health</source>


<supplement><title><p>Proceedings of the 6th Postgraduate Forum on Health Systems and Policies</p></title><editor>Syed Mohamed Aljunid and Tuti Ningseh Mohd-Dom</editor><sponsor><note>The conference was funded by the United Nations University and the state government of Melaka. Publication of this supplement was funded by the United Nations University.</note></sponsor><note>Meeting abstracts</note></supplement><conference><title><p>6th Postgraduate Forum on Health Systems and Policies</p></title><location>Melaka, Malaysia</location><date-range>21-22 May 2012</date-range><url>http://iigh.unu.edu/?q=node/148</url></conference><issn>1471-2458</issn>
<pubdate>2012</pubdate>
<volume>12</volume>
<issue>Suppl 2</issue>
<fpage>A23</fpage>
<url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/S2/A23</url>
<xrefbib><pubid idtype="doi">10.1186/1471-2458-12-S2-A23</pubid></xrefbib>
</bibl>
<history><pub><date><day>27</day><month>11</month><year>2012</year></date></pub></history>
<cpyrt><year>2012</year><collab>Baguma et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</collab><note>This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (<url>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0</url>), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</note></cpyrt>
</fm><bdy>
<sec>
<st>
<p>Background</p>
</st>
<p>The global movement to improve the quality of life advances the role of health systems and their policies to reduce challenges faced such as health risks caused by climate change and environmental hazards. In this paper, we focus on infant mortality and examine the status of the infant mortality between birth and one year age in developing countries.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<st>
<p>Methods</p>
</st>
<p>The secondary data on infant mortality was obtained on countries in Eastern Africa, Western Europe and Southern Asian countries between 1950 and 2010 expressed as deaths per 1,000 births. Countries in Western Europe were used for comparison purposes. The data also included inpatients (admissions and deaths in 2007) of water-related diseases such as malaria and diarrhoea, in Eastern Africa (i.e., Uganda). Nonlinear regression modelling was utilized in the empirical analysis.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<st>
<p>Results</p>
</st>
<p>The study shows that, children deaths between birth and age one had declined in Eastern Africa by 7%, Western Europe by 23% and reduced by 15% in Southern Asian countries. The study also shows that the Eastern African countries require more than 50 years to improve infant mortality to levels close to Western Europe countries (i.e., 3.52 &gt; 3.6), ceteris-paribus.</p>
</sec>
<sec>
<st>
<p>Conclusion</p>
</st>
<p>Inadequacies in the health systems, climate change linked health risks, low national incomes and water-related diseases are partly some of the causes of high infant mortality in which policy measures could emphasize for global health interventions.</p>
</sec>
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