National level factors associated with child underweight and infant mortality rates. Multi-country evidence

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Health Science, De La Salle University (Department of Behavioural Sciences), language: English, abstract: Although various analyses have identified structural factors having statistically significant associations with child underweight and infant mortality rates, their focus has only thinly involved national level data from multiple countries. Using national level data from 62 countries, the present analysis determined the statistical relationships of child underweight and infant mortality rates with structural factors, such as poverty, education, antenatal care, skilled providers, contraceptive use, and access to water and sanitation.

The two dependent variables were both statistically significantly associated with all the seven independent variables. The strengths of their bivariate association were mainly moderate to high, while the direction of the associations of child underweight and infant mortality rates were positive with poverty and negative with the other factors. When the development level of countries was used as the control variable, many of the observed associations considerably weakened in terms of their statistical significance and strength. Overall, the analysis underscores the importance of structural factors and development level of countries as influencers of health outcomes involving children and infants.