INTERNAL FEMALE MIGRATION AND CHILDHOOD MORBIDITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Individuals move between rural and urban centres and vice versa due to socio-economic, demographic and cultural factors without considering its effect on the lives of their children. The few previous studies on migration and child health in Nigeria has focussed on child mortality and immunization with consideration for just three migration streams. This study was therefore conducted to investigate the relationship between six streams of internal female migration and childhood morbidity in Nigeria. Children data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) was used for this study. The type of place of residence, place of previous residence and years lived in place of residence were used to derive six migration streams. Childhood morbidities were measured by the occurrence of symptoms of diarrhea, fever, and cough within two weeks preceding the survey. Analysis was limited to children alive and whose mothers were not visitors at the time of the survey. The data was weighted to adjust for the stratified two-stage cluster sampling technique adopted during the survey and was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, simple and multiple logistic regression models at 5% significance level. Overall, 24,975 children were included in the analyses of which 28.8% belonged to women aged 25-29 years. The majority of the under-five mothers were currently married (94%). Almost half (45.4%) of the mothers have no formal education and about one-third (30.4%) of the children belonged to mothers who were housewives. A high proportion (63.0%) of the children were delivered at home and 36.3% of children never had vaccination. Rural-rural migration was found to be the most common form of internal female migration (33.4%). The percentages of rural non-migrants, rural-urban, urban non-migrant, urban-urban and urban-rural were 22.5%, 5.3%, 7.0%, 18.5%, 13 .3% respectively. The prevalence of childhood morbidity was 26%. Overall, 16% of under-five children were reported to have had fever, 13% had cough while 10% had diarhhea in the two weeks prior to the survey The process of migration had a significant effect on childhood morbidity especially among rural-rural {OR=l.33, C.l= l.18-1.49} and urban-rural migrants {OR=l.25, C.l=l.07-1.46}, Logistic regression provided evidence that the likelihood of childhood morbidity decreases with advance in maternal age (at least 25 years) and higher educational level was a protective factor against the occurrence of childhood morbidity {OR=0.80, C.l=0.65-0.98}. Children from the North East region had a relatively higher risk of childhood morbidity {OR=3.04, C.1=2.50-3.70}. Multiple logistic regression revealed that mother's age, region of residence, child's size at birth and wealth index are important in explaining the differentials in childhood morbidity among migrants and non-migrants' children. This study clearly demonstrate that under-five children of rural-rural migrants and urban-rural migrants in Nigeria are significantly at higher risk of childhood morbidity than their non-migrant counterparts. Mother's age, region of residence, birth size, wealth index are important determinants of childhood morbidity. This emphasizes the need for advanced age at marriage (above 20), increased female education, and a general improvement of the socio-economic situation of people in rural community.