CORRELATES OF CHILDHOOD MORTALITY IN NIGERIA: EVIDENCE FROM NDHS 2013

Abstract

Prevalence of childhood mortality is still high in Nigeria reported at 41 per 1000 live births in 2013. The Concentration of Childhood among some women in certain communities in the country has been an issue of public health importance most especially in the developing world. The aim of this study was to describe the correlates of childhood mortality clustering in Nigeria. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed on the most recent NDHS 2013 data on 31,482 live births whether dead (9.2%) or alive (90.8%) for five years before the survey nested within 893 communities. Bivariate and Ordinary logistic regression analysis was used to explore the effects of selected individual and community variables on childhood death. The odds Ratio (OR) and its 95% Confidence Interval (Cl) were estimated. Frequency table was also employed for data cleaning. Childhood death was found to cluster within some families and communities than others most especially in the Northern part of the country and in rural areas. This results showed that both individual-level factors (such as child's sex, birth interval, multiple birth, parity, parental education, maternal age and maternal birth cohort) and community level (including water source, toilet facility. place and region of residence) variables are both correlates of death clustering. For instance, the result showed higher risk of death in male children (OR=0.890, P-value < 0.0. CI=0.774- 0.905), children born with short birth interval less than 24 months (OR=0.32, P-value < 0.01, CT=0.355-1.059), with higher parity (CI=3.683-5.798), children of multiple births (Cl=2.991-4.090), those from older mothers (OR=0.775, P-value = 0.01, CI=0.674-0.892) and parent with no education. At the community-level, access to improved toilet facility (OR= 1.10, P-value < 0.05, CI=0.831-0.988) and living in urban areas are protective of U5D. The study consistently showed that individual and community characteristics arc important correlates of childhood mortality clustering in Nigeria. The findings shows that there is death clustering in the northern part of the country than the southern part and also highlight the need to implement public health intervention strategies at both levels (the household level and the community level) most especially in those regions where childhood death is more pronounced.