A Spatial Analysis of Child Mortality across Nigeria
Open Access
- Author:
- Otulana, Oluwatobi M
- Area of Honors:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Stephen Augustus Matthews, Thesis Supervisor
Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- child mortality
maternal education
spatial analyses
Nigeria - Abstract:
- Nigeria is a geographically and demographically diverse nation with over 500 different ethnicities, languages, and unique cultures; but the resources available to different people groups is markedly different according to where they are located. Spatial inequalities in social and economic resources may be influencing Nigeria’s struggle to reduce child mortality rates across the country. In the face of demographic, economic, and political change, Nigeria’s under-5 mortality rate remains high, inhibiting positive outcomes for Nigeria’s children. This paper seeks to understand how differing regional distributions of personal, household, and contextual variables influence child mortality rate. Through spatial analysis, this research paper examines distributions of in literacy, household wealth, health decision-making power, religion, and residence type across Nigeria, and interprets how the spatial distribution disproportionately affects certain ethnic groups. This paper also employs statistical analyses methods to identify the significant personal, household, and contextual determinants of under-5 mortality in Nigeria. Distributions of social and economic resources are in fact distributed unequally in Nigeria, as supported by strong measures of positive spatial autocorrelation. Regional and state disparities in maternal education, wealth, decision-making power, and residence type disadvantage ethnic groups residing in the northern region of the country more so than people living in the south. Two methods of regression highlight the importance of maternal education, decision-making power, and residence type on child health outcomes in Nigeria, and spatial autocorrelation indicates the areas in need of more governmental resources to combat high levels of under-5 mortality.