The determinants of the child mortality rate in rural Namibia (original) (raw)

2013, Humanities and social sciences

From a policy perspective, the most useful information about child mortality is its determinants. Hence, during the 20 th and 21 st centuries, researchers have increasingly turned their attention to identifying factors associated with low child mortality in developing countries. The identification of factors that account for variations in childhood mortality is essential in the formulation of policies and programs that aim to reduce child mortality. This paper analyses and compares the determinants of child mortality in Namibia, nationally, and in the two rural regional health directorates (RHDs), namely the Northeast and Northwest, using the 2006-07 Namibia Demographic and Health Survey. The Cox proportional hazard model is applied to assess the relative effects of the independent variables on child mortality. The results show that short birth intervals and widowed or divorced mothers had the highest risk of child mortality (p < 0.001) in Namibia as a whole as well as in the two...