Environmental Determinants of Child Mortality in Nigeria

Globally, childhood mortality rates have decline over the years due majorly to various action plans and interventions targeted at various communicable diseases and other immunizable childhood infections which have been major causes of child mortality, but the situation seems to remain unchanged in sub-Saharan African countries, as approximately half of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa despite the region having only one fifth of the world’s children population. Many covariates associated with variations in infant and child mortality are interrelated, and it is important to attempt to isolate the effects of individual variables for proper and effective interventions. This study examined the environmental determinants of child mortality using principal component analysis as a data reduction technique with varimax rotation to assess the underlying structure for sixty-five measured variables, explaining the covariance relationships amongst the large correlated variables in a more parsimonious way and simultaneous multiple regression for child mortality modelling in Nigeria. For purpose of robustness, a model selection technique procedure was implemented. Estimation from the stepwise regression model shows that household environmental characteristics do have significant impact on mortality.