Spatial analysis of the relationship between early childhood mortality and malaria endemicity in Malawi

Kazembe, Lawrence N. and Appleton, Christopher C. and Kleinschmidt, Immo (2007) Spatial analysis of the relationship between early childhood mortality and malaria endemicity in Malawi. Geospatial health , 2 (1). pp. 41-50. ISSN 1970-7096

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Abstract

Spatial differences in mortality have been reported in Africa amongst children under-five years of age. Risk factors contributing to this geographical variation include bio-demographic and socio-economic factors, the prevalence of infectious diseases and the variability in the quality of child health care. This paper is concerned with investigating the link between early childhood mortality and malaria risk. We used data from the Mapping Malaria Risk in Africa (MARA) and Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) databases to explore this relationship. The DHS survey included questions on bio-demographic and socio-economic status, complete birth histories and survival time of each child within the five years preceding the survey. Survival times were computed in months until death or until the survey was done. The malaria risk was based on prevalence data estimated at the precise DHS sampling location. A spatial Cox regression model was applied to analyze child survival, assessing the influence of both individual-specific factors, malaria endemicity and group-specific environmental factors, approximated by geographical location. Geographical location was considered at subdistrict level. Our analysis shows that although malaria endemicity is not associated with the risk of infant mortality, it is an important risk factor for child mortality. The results confirm the effects of bio-demographic and socio-economic variables (maternal education, maternal age, birth order and place of residence) on infant and child mortality. The subdistrict-specific variation of infant and child mortality shows a rural-urban distinction with a relatively lower risk of mortality in main urban areas

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	childhood mortality, malaria, Malawi, spatial analysis, Bayesian inference
Subjects:	600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 613 Salute personale e sicurezza (Promozione della salute) > 613.2 Dietetica (Classificare qui l'Alimentazione applicata, le guide ai valori nutrizionali del cibo, delle bavande; le opere d'insieme sugli aspetti del cibo, delle bevande legati alla salute personale) 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici) > 614 Medicina legale; incidenza delle malattie; Medicina preventiva pubblica > 614.5 Incidenza di specifiche malattie e tipi di malattia e misure pubbliche per prevenirle 900 Storia, Geografia e discipline ausiliarie > 910 Geografia e viaggi > 910.285 Geographic information systems
Depositing User:	Users 66 not found.
Date Deposited:	23 Jun 2010 14:44
Last Modified:	23 Jun 2010 14:44
URI:	http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/2832

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