PTE Reading MC Multiple Answers: Using infant mortality as a key indicator of the status of children, we now begin to ha…

Using infant mortality as a key indicator of the status of children, we now begin to have the broad features of a hypothesis as to the causes of higher or lower mortality rates. One aspect is the complex of factors involving the access of mothers to trained personnel and other child delivery, the nutritional status of pregnant and nursing mothers, and the quality of health care and nourishment that babies receive. The other aspect, indicated by rural-urban differentials, is the possible importance of human settlement patterns in relation to the availability of healthcare and related facilities such as potable water, excreta disposal systems, etc. Thus, in a special sense, it is much cheaper to make health and other basic services available to a community when it is densely settled rather than widely dispersed. It is possible to argue, however, that both these sets of factors are closely related to a third one, namely, income levels. Poorer mothers and babies have less access to healthcare facilities and nourishment than those who are better off; urban communities are on average much better off than rural communities.