Sustained Effects of the 1974-5 Famine on Infant and Child Mortality in a Rural Area of Bangladesh.

In this paper the sustained effects of the 1974-75 famine on cohort mortality in a rural area of Bangladesh are studied. In the analysis, mortality rates for children born and conceived during the famine are compared with those from a post-famine cohort. In the famine-born cohort, mortality was higher during the first and second years of life, while in the famine conceived cohort it was higher during the first year and lower during the second compared to the non-famine cohort. No significant differences in mortality by cohort were observed between the ages of 24 and 59 months. Using logistic regression, interactions between famine and socio-demographic characteristics were also studied. Three principal results emerged: first, a differential effect of the famine by socio-economic group was only present during the post-neonatal period for the famine-born cohort; secondly, children aged 12-23 months who were born to younger mothers were more adversely affected by the famine than those born to older mothers; and thirdly, although there was excess mortality for girls aged 24-59 months relative to boys of the same age in the non-famine and famine-conceived cohorts, there was little difference between mortality by sex for the famine-born. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]