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Differentials of Infant and Child Mortality in Bangladesh:
Evidence from BDHS Data
Md. Jamal Uddin
Research Student, Department of Statistics, Shahjalal
University of Science & Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh
Abstract
Infant and child
mortality is a problem that has many dimensions with the complexity
of the issues that infant and child mortality encompasses. It has
especially been a daunting problem for the developing world
including Bangladesh. Such widespread prevalence of this problem in
developing nations is mainly due to the limited resources and
infrastructure that they have at their disposal to combat infant and
child death. In this study an attempt has been made to examine the
differentials and determinants of infant and child mortality in
Bangladesh. The study is based on the analysis of secondary data
taken from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS)
conducted during 1999-2000 in six administrative divisions. The data
of births and deaths occurred during the period November’1994 to
October’1999 along with the background characteristics of the
households and parents have been utilized for the study. The study
applies both bivariate and multivariate analysis techniques. This
study consists with two contributory chapters, of which one deals
with differentials of mortality and another deals with determinants
of mortality.
The study examines
the neonatal, post-neonatal and child mortality differentials by
some selected socio-economic, bio-demographic & maternal health care
variables using bivariate analysis. The results shows that parents
education have significant negative effect on infant and child
mortality. Occupation of father was found significant for
post-neonatal and child mortality. The neonatal and post-neonatal
mortality was found higher in small families (2-4 members). This
study indicated that the neonatal, post-neonatal and child mortality
rates were significantly lower for high standard of living of
mothers. Further, the study indicated that breastfeeding status has
played significant role to reduce infant and child mortality. The
neonatal, post-neonatal and child mortality was found lower for the
children whose mother are currently breastfeeding to their child.
The study identified that mother age at the birth of the child and
birth order has significant influence on neonatal and post-neonatal
mortality. Again, both neonatal and post-neonatal mortality was
observed lowest for the children whose birth interval is greater
than 30 months. The complication during birth was found significant
for neonatal mortality, while type of birth was found significant
for neonatal & post-neonatal mortality. Among the maternal health
care variables, this study indicated that timing of first antenatal
check during pregnancy, TT during pregnancy and numbers of antenatal
visit during pregnancy were significant for all the three mortality
cohorts. In particular the lowest infant and child mortality was
observed for the children whose mother were received TT vaccine
during pregnancy.
Multivariate
logistic regression analysis reveals that among the socio-economic,
bio-demographic and maternal health care variables, education of
mother, family size, breastfeeding status, mother age at the birth
of child, birth spacing with previous child, complication during
birth, type of birth, timing of first antenatal check and TT during
pregnancy have significant effect on neonatal mortality; on the
other hand, education of father, occupation of father, family size,
breastfeeding status, mother age at the birth of child, type of
birth and TT during pregnancy was found significant effect on
post-neonatal mortality. Again, education of father, occupation of
father, breastfeeding status, TT during pregnancy and timing of
first antenatal check during pregnancy was found significant role
for child mortality. This study may be helpful for planning purposes
as it identifies the segment of people who are experiencing in high
infant and child mortality.
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