Sociocultural determinants of infant and child mortality in Turkey

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to review and integrate international and Turkish research on infant and child mortality. Recent research and multivariate analyses in African, Latin American and Asian countries have revealed that in many countries mother's education is a powerful predictor of child survival. The present review of research in Turkey has indicated that urban/rural and regional differentials in infant mortality have been clearly established as by-products of fertility, contraception, and health surveys covering nationally representative samples. However, there are only a few multivariate explanatory models of infant/child mortality in Turkey to isolate and measure the effects of mother's education in relation to other variables. Nevertheless, existing studies in Turkey seem to suggest that mother's and father's education might link socio-economic, psychocultural, and biomedical variables with each other at community, household, and individual levels, providing clues for the formulation of future research designs and policy decisions.