A Statistical Analysis of Child Mortality: Evidence from Nigeria

Despite the global decline in under-five mortality rate from 90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 48 in 2012, Nigeria has failed to record any substantial improvement. Under-five mortality in Nigeria increased from 138 per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 158 per 1,000 live births in 2011 against the Millennium development Goal target of71 per 1,000 live births. The study used data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2008 to investigate the predictors of child (aged 0-4 years) mortality in Nigeria. Only data for the currently married women were extracted and filtered by the experience of child mortality (n = 6,256) and those who do not have such experience (n = 9,809). Overall, 16,065 women were covered. Cross-tabulation and binary logistic regression techniques were employed in the statistical analysis. The crosstabulation analysis shows that mortality rate was highest ( 49.14%) for children of illiterate mothers and lowest (13.29%) among mothers with higher education. In the logistic regression analysis, education of both parents and occupation of mothers were found statistically significant to reduction in child mortality rate. The result also revealed that mothers' wealth index, age at first birth and usual of place of residence have substantial impact on child mortality in Nigeria. The authors suggested that increase in women education could increase age at first birth and mitigate the risk of poor child health outcomes

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