Avoidable infant mortality and associated factors in Porto Alegre, Southern Brazil, 2000-2003

A case-control study was performed to investigate the association between the categories avoidable and non-avoidable death and socio-demographic, maternal reproductive, and neonatal status. The study used multivariate logistic regression according to a hierarchical model to analyze 1,139 infant deaths from 2000 to 2003. The variables sex, maternal age, number of live born infants, type of pregnancy, place of birth, and 5-minute Apgar were not associated with avoidable deaths. However, maternal schooling