Influence of mothers' Obesity, Hypertension and Morbidity on Infant and Child Mortality among the Zou of Manipur, North East India.

The present study was conducted to find out the influence of obesity, hypertension and morbidity of the mothers on infant and child mortality among the Zou a tribal population of Manipur state. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 533 mothers of age 17-49 years following house to house visits. The finding shows that BMI is negatively associated with infant and child mortality. There is a positive correlation with rising Blood Pressure categories. Although the magnitude of the correlation differed, there was a significant positive correlation with a higher frequency of major/chronic morbidity and the type of morbidity of the mothers. The present finding shows that undernutrition and the frequency, prevalence of morbidity of the mothers are the main influential factors of infant and child mortality in the study population. The considerable prevalence of underweight mothers indirectly highlighted their socio-economic status leading to poor health condition of the mother which indirectly may affects the development of child from the initial stage of conception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]