Objective: To monitor the changing trend of infant mortality rate (IMR) and fetal and infant mortality rate (FIM) in Beijing and to develop proper measures to decrease these two rates.
Methods: Dynamic series analysis was used to analyze the monitoring data of 590,833 cases of live birth, 5,835 cases of infant death, and 10,499 cases of stillbirth in Beijing during 1992-2000. The interventional measures in different phases were analyzed too.
Results: The IMR and FIMR in Beijing were 12.42% and 19.43% respectively in 1992 and were reduced to 6.84% and 15.79% respectively in 2000. The IMR and FIMR were declining significantly during the periods of 1992-1994, 1995-1997, and 1998-2001 (P < 0.01). The decrease of IMR by 48% was more remarkable than that of FIMR by 19%. The IMR I rural areas was higher than that in urban area. Pneumonia dropped from the position of the first death cause for infants to the fourth cause and congenital heart disease became the first cause.
Conclusion: FIMR helps more comprehensively evaluate the effect of maternal and child health care. Monitoring and intervention of congenital heart diseases is very important.