Education as a factor in mortality decline: an examination of Nigerian data

The debate between those who see economic development and those who regard advances in medical technology as bearing major responsibility for mortality decline usually gives little attention to different stages of social change when economic or medical conditions are fixed. However Nigerian statistics analyzed here show that very different levels of child survivorship result from different levels of maternal education in an otherwise similar socioeconomic context and when there is equal access to the use of medical facilities. Indeed maternal education in Nigeria appears to be the single most powerful determinant of the level of child mortality. The statistics come from 2 surveys undertaken in 1973: one of 6606 women in Ibadan city and the other of 1499 women in a large area of southwest Nigeria. Proportions of children surviving are compounded into an index of child mortality to increase the frequencies in individual cells and standardize maternal age when child survivorship is correlated with a range of factors and 2 component indices are also constructed to detect change over time. It is concluded that womens education in societies like that of the Yoruba in Nigeria can produce profound changes in family structure and relationships which in turn may influence both mortality and fertility levels. Education may well play a major role in the demographic transition and this role may help to explain the close timing of mortality and fertility transitions. (Authors)