Impact of Socio-Demographic factors on survival of under-five children in Nigeria

Abstract

A number of discussions on mortality or survival patterns of under-five children in Nigeria have been presented in the literature over years, most of which were characterized by descriptive analysis, in which facts were reported by percentages, ratio and measures of association to mention a few. In this study, binary logistic regression model was employed to model the survival status (dead or alive) of under-five children in Nigeria as a function of some socio-demographic variables. Results from this study revealed that ten socio-demographic variables among several others were significantly associated with the survivals of under-five children in Nigeria. Specifically, the results showed that children that were born in urban area, that were exclusively breastfed, that were among the first four children in the family, whose mothers have secondary education and post-secondary education have significant increased odds, to about 27%, 580%, 20%, 22% and 102% respectively, of surviving beyond age five than their counterparts in the reference categories of the above identified risk factors (odds ratio is 1.271(p < 0.0001 for urban), 6.810 (p<0.0001 for breastfeeding), 1.197 (p < 0.0001 for birth order), 1.225 (p = 0.001 for secondary education) and 2.023 (p < 0.0001 for higher education)). Results from this work indicated that more enlightenment program is required to stem the alarming increase in under-five mortality rate in Nigeria which currently stood at 112%. Data set from Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) report for 2008 was employed in this study.