The issues of identifying and assessing the degree of influence of various factors on child mortality become particularly relevant in the light of the reduction in the proportion of children in the population and the decline in the birth rate. The quantitative assessment of the contribution of specific factors to the risk of child mortality is a key prerequisite for the substantiation of management measures aimed at minimizing it. Despite ample evidence of the influence of economic, medical and demographic factors on people’s health, there is a shortage of works devoted to the identification of quantitative correlations of these parameters with infant mortality in the context of Russian regions and the substantiation of approaches to the application of these tools in the practice of improving the child health care system. This study presents the results of assessing the relationship between a number of economic, demographic parameters and indicators of the provision with health care resources and infant mortality. Russia’s regions have been grouped according to the level of health care resources provision (bed fund, doctors, outpatient facilities), the characteristics of the leading regions have been analyzed. The correlation analysis revealed that the greatest correlation with the indicator of infant mortality of the regional population is demonstrated by age-specific birth rates in the youngest reproductive ages (15–19 years and 20–24 years), indicators of the provision of beds for pregnant women and children. Regression analysis of panel data for Russian regions revealed quantitative relationships between the infant mortality rate, age-specific birth rates, the value of gross regional product and the health care resources provision. The results of the study may be of interest to specialists in the field of regional child health care
Keywords
regional differentiation, infant mortality, child health, child health care development, provision of medical personnel