The Correlation of Human Development Index on Fertility and Mortality Rate: a Global Ecological Study

Background Several studies have examined the relationship between Human Development Index (HDI) and various health outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between HDI, and infant mortality rate, mortality rate of children under one year and under 5 years, maternal mortality rate, and total fertility rate. Materials and Methods In this ecologic study, data on HDI, total fertility rate (TFR), maternal mortality rate (MMR), neonatal mortality rate (NMR), infant mortality rate (IMR) and mortality rate in children under 5 years of age (< 5MR), were extracted from 188 countries in 2014 in the world. The data required in this study was obtained from the World Bank. Data analysis was performed using Pearson correlation in Stata version 12.0 software. Results In this study, a negative significant correlation was observed between HDI and IMR (r = -0.878, P = 0.001), NMR (r = -0.870, 95% CI: -0.902, -0.828, P = 0.001), <5MR (r = -0.858, 95% CI: -0.893, -0.813, P = 0.001), MMR (r = -0.807, 95% CI: -0.853, -0.747, P = 0.001) and TFR (r = -0.831, 95% CI: -0.872, -0.778, P = 0.001). Conclusion IMR, children under one year old and under 5 years, and MMR mostly occur in developing countries. There was a correlation between HDI and its components, and the neonatal, infants, children under 5 years, maternal mortality rate and total fertility. The average annual percentage change of HDI also had a correlation with neonatal, infants, children under 5- year mortality rate, total fertility and maternal deaths.