Regional Analysis of Factors Influencing Child Mortality

Abstract

Because children’s survival has typically been discussed as a global or national issue, the regional characteristic and its place in the national context has not been sufficiently addressed. This chapter examines the regional disparity of child mortality and analyzes its correlation with regional data on possible immediate, underlying, and basic structural causes. This regional correlation analysis confirmed the basic understanding of nutrition, HIV, and women’s empowerment, provoked questions regarding education and occupation, and highlighted characteristics of the regions within Tanzania. An analysis of the 2002 under-five mortality rate (U5MR) highlighted numerous characteristics of the Lindi and Mtwara regions with the highest U5MR rates, including issues such as stunting, dairy food consumption, and decision-making. In addition, an analysis based on the 2012 U5MR and child mortality rate (CMR) emphasized similar trends likely to have influenced children’s mortality, such as stunting and consumption of dairy food by mothers. However, it also dismissed other indicators (e.g., mothers engaging in agriculture) and highlighted other new indicators (e.g., anemia and HIV) influencing children’s mortality.