European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON STILL BIRTH BETWEEN THE HINDU AND THE MUSLIM POPULATION OF KOLKATA, WEST BENGAL, INDIA

Nadira Mallick* and Dr. Doyel Dasgupta

ABSTRACT

The present study is an attempt to explore the incidence of still birth between Hindu and Muslim population of West Bengal. The sample comprised of 10,000 birth records (both live and still births) from Log book of N.R.S. Medical College & Hospital and R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital situated in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The present sample is constituted by Bengali speaking Hindu and Muslim mothers. Simple percentage and bar diagram were used for analysis of data. The Z test for differences on still birth between the Hindu and the Muslim Bengalee population employed. This difference was found to be significant statistically (p< 0.001). Findings of this study showed that the Muslims (10.32%) had a higher incidence of still birth compared to the Hindus (3.97%). The difference in still birth between the Hindu and the Muslim was statistically significant (z=8.04, p<0.0001). The study also revealed that the older mothers (28yrs-36yrs and 37yrs-45yrs) were at high risk for still birth in comparison to younger mothers (below 18 yrs and 19 yrs-27 yrs). The present study concluded that the percentage of still birth is increasing with increasing of mothers’ age, because the age of 35 years is a critical threshold for reproductive success, the risk of fetal deaths rapidly increases after this age. On the other hand, the higher incidence of still birth among Muslim mothers compared to Hindu mothers is complicated to explain.

Keywords: Still birth of Hindus, Still birth of Muslims, comparative study, West Bengal.