Maternal age is one of the strongest predictors of infant mortality. Despite the relatively high prevalence of childbearing at younger and advanced ages and high infant mortality rates in India, systematic studies on the relationship between these variables are lacking. This study fills this gap by analyzing the data obtained from 2015-16 India’s National Family Health Survey. The analysis is based on a sample of 230,475 children born in the 5 years preceding the survey. We find that, generally, there is a mild U-shaped relationship between maternal age and mortality risk in the first year of life, with children born to mothers in their teens and late 30s and beyond being most at risk and those born to mothers aged 25–29 being least at risk. In addition, we find that socioeconomic, biodemographic, and other health-related factors account for some, but not all, maternal-age effects on mortality, suggesting that maternal age is an independent risk factor for both neonatal and post-neonatal mortality. While biodemographic and other health-related factors play important roles in explaining why children born to mothers at both ends of the reproductive-age spectrum are at significantly increased risks, the effects of socioeconomic factors are relatively modest, and that is the case among children born to mothers at advanced ages only. The results underscore the importance of maternal and child health care policies, which can help teenage mothers postpone having children until their late 20s, not have a child shortly after the preceding birth, and continuously monitor the health conditions of low-birthweight children.

母亲年龄是婴儿死亡率最有力的预测因素之一。尽管印度低龄和高龄生育率相对较高，婴儿死亡率也较高，但缺乏对这些变量之间关系的系统研究。本研究通过分析 2015-16 年印度全国家庭健康调查获得的数据填补了这一空白。该分析基于调查前 5 年内出生的 230,475 名儿童样本。我们发现，一般来说，母亲年龄与出生后第一年的死亡风险之间存在轻微的 U 形关系，十几岁、30 多岁及以上的母亲所生的孩子风险最高，而 1 岁以上的母亲所生的孩子风险最高。 25-29 岁的风险最小。此外，我们发现社会经济、生物人口和其他健康相关因素解释了孕产妇年龄对死亡率的部分但不是全部影响，这表明孕产妇年龄是新生儿和新生儿后死亡的独立危险因素。虽然生物人口统计和其他健康相关因素在解释为什么育龄范围两端的母亲所生的孩子风险显着增加方面发挥着重要作用，但社会经济因素的影响相对较小，出生的孩子就是这种情况仅适用于高龄母亲。研究结果强调了妇幼保健政策的重要性，这些政策可以帮助少女母亲将生育推迟到20多岁，在上一次出生后不久不要生育，并持续监测低出生体重儿童的健康状况。