The more the healthier? Accounting for the dynamic role of household structure in child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa
(2020) EAPS Working Group on Health, Morbidity and Mortality — Location: Evora, Portugal (online)
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- Abstract
- Households are the backbone of societies, as the centre of a myriad of processes including childbearing, labour force participation and health care. Understanding the dynamics of households is thus important, yet little research examines the implications of living arrangements in sub-Saharan Africa, including how household structure may affect the health and mortality of children. While parents play a critical role in their children’s survival, other household members have also been found to provide support for children, reducing child mortality. We examine the effect of household structure on child mortality between 1990 and 2015 in sub-Saharan Africa where mortality remains highest and households are relatively large. Using readily available data from 27 Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems which cover entire populations in delineated areas, we examine households as time-varying entities. The pooled data includes over 500,000 under-five year olds. We use Cox proportional hazard models, controlling for site and period effects, to evaluate the impact of household size, the ratio of men to women in the household and the presence of specific members, such as older women (grandmothers) who may help care for children, on under-five mortality. We also consider whether the effect of the presence of mothers differs to the effect of the presence of fathers on child mortality. Our preliminary findings indicate that households are becoming smaller in sub-Saharan Africa, but larger households have a protective effect for children. Additionally, more women in the household lowers the risk of child mortality.
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Menashe Oren, A., & et al. (2020). The more the healthier? Accounting for the dynamic role of household structure in child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. EAPS Working Group on Health, Morbidity and Mortality, Evora, Portugal (online). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/104200