BACKGROUND Between 1990 and 2006, China reduced its under-five mortality rate (U5MR) from 64.6 to 20.6 per 1000 live births and achieved the fourth United Nation's Millennium Development Goal nine years ahead of target. This study explores the contribution of social, economic and political determinants, health system and policy determinants, and health programmes and interventions to this succe...

Much of Africa has yet to go through a demographic transition; this Malthusian crisis of high mortality, high fertility, rapid population growth and chronic extreme poverty has been attributed to factors including the status of women, pro-natalist policies, and poverty itself. Large uncertainty exists among demographers as to the relative importance of these factors, mostly since econometric es...

This paper focuses on infant and child mortality in rural areas of India. We construct a flexible duration model, which allows for frailty at multiple levels and interactions between the child’s age and individual, socioeconomic, and environmental characteristics. The model is estimated using the Indian National Family and Health Survey 1998/1999. The estimation results show that socioeconomic ...

BACKGROUND Several birth characteristics are associated with high mortality risk: very young or old mothers, short birth intervals and high birth order. One justification for family planning programs is the health benefits associated with better spacing and timing of births. This study examines the extent to which the prevalence of these risk factors changes as a country transitions from high t...

BACKGROUND Between 1997 and 2009, a number of key malaria control interventions were implemented in the Kilombero and Ulanga Districts in south central Tanzania to increase insecticide-treated nets (ITN) coverage and improve access to effective malaria treatment. In this study we estimated the contribution of these interventions to observed decreases in child mortality. METHODS The local Heal...

Data was drawn primarily from the Pakistan Fertility Survey (PFS) conducted on a sample basis for the entire country in 1975 in an effort to investigate and identify any rural-urban differentials in fertility and to try to explain them in terms of socioeconomic and demographic factors. The Survey included a national random sample of 4949 ever-married women, aged 15-49 (1886 in urban areas and ...

BACKGROUND Despite substantial financial contributions by the United States President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) since 2006, no studies have carefully assessed how this program may have affected important population-level health outcomes. We utilized multiple publicly available data sources to evaluate the association between introduction of PMI and child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa (...

The present study examines the trend and differentials in infant and child mortality among three mortality groups of states, which are grouped as low, medium and high mortality groups according to their level of under five mortality rates. The results indicate that the low mortality group of states are better placed in terms of housing conditions, fertility and the level of utilisation of mater...

BACKGROUND To reach global and national goals for maternal and child mortality, countries must identify vulnerable populations, which includes sex workers and their children. The objective of this study was to identify and describe maternal deaths of female sex workers in Cambodia and causes of death among their children. METHODS A convenience sample of female sex workers were recruited by lo...

In India, child mortality rates for girls are much higher than those for boys, indicating discrimination against girls in the intra-household allocation of resources. In addition, overall child mortality rates remain high in many parts of the country. This paper attempts to understand important predictors of both child and excessive female child mortality in India, with a focus on variables rel...