Introduction:

Infant mortality is a health phenomenon directly related to the deleterious living conditions of both the infant’s home and adverse socioeconomic and sanitary factors.

Objective:

To characterize inequalities in infant mortality according to differential living conditions in two populations districts of Santiago de Cuba.

Methods:

A descriptive, exploratory ecological study was carried out in the municipality of Santiago de Cuba in 1995-1997. The units of analysis were constituted by the areas framed in two populations districts of the city.

Results:

Bothe population districts were stratified, according to their living conditions, in settlements with less unfavorable and more unfavorable living conditions. Higher infant mortality was estimated in the settlement with more unfavorable living conditions (8.7 deaths per 1000 live births), where asphyxia, anoxia and hypoxia predominated as clinical causes of death and clinical causes reducible for good care at birth.

Conclusions:

A differential profile of infant mortality, according to living conditions, was identified within the population settlements of the urban districts of Santiago de Cuba. The distinctive risks of infant death were at the expense of the neonatal component, mainly for clinical causes reducible by good care at birth.

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