Infant mortality remains a major international public health problem. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worrying, as children are at high risk of dying before their fifth birthday. This study analyses the economic and social determinants of infant mortality in Cameroon using a cross-sectional study design. A nationwide stratified, two-stage sampling was used to sample 9,733 children and their respective mothers. A logistic regression model was used for both bivariate and multivariate analysis with a statistically significant level of p<0.05. The children were predominantly male, with a sex ratio of 1.03. Infant mortality was associated with a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in economic and social characteristics of the child and its mother, such as: age of the child between 25 and 60 months, second or higher birth order, average birth weight of the child, number of 2 to 3 children in the household, age of the mother, domestic violence against the mother, non-use of contraception by the mother, mothers of children residing in the North, Far-North, East and North West regions of the country. On the other hand, infant mortality was associated with a statistically non-significant difference (p>0.05) in economic and social characteristics, namely: child sex, age between 13 and 24 months, low and high child weights at birth, mother's level of education, marital status, mother's employment, religion, level of economic well-being, access to media, use of modern contraception, prenatal consultations in a health center, residence in an urban area, mothers resident in other regions of the country. The elimination of preventable deaths among children under 5 five years old by 2030 will depend on the extent to which economic and social determinants are taken into account in the public policies of resource-limited countries like Cameroon.
Published in | Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 9, Issue 4) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12 |
Page(s) | 102-112 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Economic, Social, Determinants, Mortality, Children Under Five, Cameroon
[1] | Yerdessov, N.; Zhamantayev, O.; Bolatova, Z.; Nukeshtayeva, K.; Kayupova, G.; Turmukhambetova, A. (2023). Infant Mortality Trends and Determinants in Kazakhstan. Children 2023, 10, 923. https://doi.org/10.3390/ children10060923. |
[2] | WHO (2023). THE GLOBAL HEALTH OBSERVATORY, SDG Target 3.2 (2023) | Newborn and Child Mortality: By 2030, End Preventable Deaths of Newborns and Children under 5 Years of Age, with All Countries Aiming to Reduce Neonatal Mortality and under-5 Mortality. In Child mortality and causes of death|World Health Statistics. Available online: https://www.who.int/data/ gho/data/themes/topics/indicator-groups/indicator-group-details/GHO/sdg-target-3.2-newborn-and-child-mortality (accessed on 3rd July 2023). |
[3] | United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN-IGME) (2022). Levels & Trends in Child Mortality. Report 2022, United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. |
[4] | Gonzalez, R. M. and Gilleskie, D. (2017). Infant Mortality Rate as a Measure of a Country’s Health: A Robust Method to Improve Reliability and Comparability. Demography 2017, 54, 701–720. [CrossRef] [PubMed]. |
[5] | Reidpath, D. D (2003). Infant mortality rate as an indicator of population health. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2003, 57, 344–346. [CrossRef] [PubMed]. |
[6] | Tharwani ZH, Bilal W, Khan HA, et al. (2023). Infant & Child Mortality in Pakistan and its Determinants: A Review. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing. 2023; 60. doi: 10.1177/00469580231167024. |
[7] | Perin J., Mulick A., Yeung D., Villavicencio F., Lopez G., Strong K. L, Prieto-Merino D., Cousens S., Black RE., Li Liu L. (2022). Global, regional, and national causes of under-5 mortality in 2000–19: an updated systematic analysis with implications for the Sustainable Development Goals. Lancet Child Adolesc Health 2022; 6: 106–15 Published Online November 17, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/ S2352-4642(21)00311-4. |
[8] | Ahinkorah BO, Budu E, Seidu A-A, Agbaglo E, Adu C, Osei D, et al. (2022). Economic and social and proximate determinants of underfive mortality in Guinea. PLoS ONE 17 (5): e0267700. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. |
[9] | Asif, M. F., Pervaiz, Z., Afridi, J. R. et al. (2022). Economic and social determinants of child mortality in Pakistan and the moderating role of household’s wealth index. BMC Pediatr 22, 3 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-021-03076-2. |
[10] | Li Liu, Shefali Oza, Dan Hogan, Yue Chu, Jamie Perin, Jun Zhu, Joy E Lawn, Simon Cousens, Colin Mathers, Robert E Black (2016). Global, regional, and national causes of under-5 mortality in 2000–15: an updated systematic analysis with implications for the Sustainable Development Goals. Lancet 2016; 388: 3027–35 Published Online November 10, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736 (16)31593-8 |
[11] | Gobebo Gizachew (2021). “Determinant factors of under-five mortality in Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s region (SNNPR)”, Ethiopia Italian Journal of Pediatrics (2021) 47: 214 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-021-01118-0 |
[12] | WHO/Africa region (2022). Africa's progress in maternal and infant mortality is declining. The Atlas of African Health Statistics 2022 – Full report, Brazzavile, Congo. |
[13] | United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) (2021). Levels & Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2021, Estimates developed by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. |
[14] | WHO (2022). Child mortality (under 5 years, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/levels-and-trends-in-child-under-5-mortality-in-2020, updated 28 January 2022. |
[15] | UNICEF (2021). “Levels & Trends in Child Mortality” Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, Report 2021. (http://www.childmortality.org). |
[16] | World Health Statistics (2023): Infant Mortality Rate Worldwide (Update for 2023!) Infant Mortality Rate Worldwide (Update for 2023), https://www.infoplease.com/world/health-statistics. |
[17] | UNICEF (2022). Child Mortality", report 2022 des Nations Unies © Unicef. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund; 2022. (http://www.childmortality.org). |
[18] | MINSANTE (2016). Stratégie sectorielle de santé 2016-2027. Ministère de la santé publique, Yaoundé, Cameroun. |
[19] | African Union (2019). Rapport 2019 sur l'état de Sante des Mères, des Nouveau-Nés, des Enfants et des Adolescents. Référence de document: SA24676 – 15. Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. |
[20] | United Nations, (1985): “Economic and social Differentials in Child Mortality in Developing Countries”. United Nations, New York, 1985. |
[21] | Azevedo M., Prater G. and Lantum D. (1991): “Culture, biomedicine and child mortality in Cameroon”. Soc. Set. Med. 32, 1341, 1991. |
[22] | Institut National de la Statistique & ICF Macro, (2018). Cameroun: Vème Enquête de Démographie et de Santé. Yaoundé, Cameroun. |
[23] | Nugroho W. N. and Vitri W. (2016). Economic and social Determinants of Health Insurance Membership Of Women Of Reproductive Age In Indonesia. Proceedings ICHWB (International Conference on Health and Well-Being) ICHWB (International Conference on Health and Well-Being) 2016. (Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, 2016-05 27). http://hdl.handle.net/11617/7406 |
[24] | CHELLAI Fatih (2021). “Determinants of Under-Five Child Mortality in Arab Countries. Are the Effects Homogeneous Across Birth Order and Among Countries?”, Published Online: 30 Dec 2021, Volume & Issue: Volume 14 (2021) - Issue 23 (December 2021), Page range: 34 – 49, DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/eras-2021-0009. |
[25] | Pacifique, N. K., Ntahuma, B., Bujiriri, K., Masirika, Z., Bisengi, F., Ntana, N., & Malengera, K. (2023). Evaluation du statut nutritionnel et de la mortalité des enfants de 0 à 59 mois dans l'aire de santé Lwiro, Bukavu, Est RD Congo. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, 39 (1), 392-400. |
[26] | Rahman, M. M., Alam, K. & Khanam, R. (2022). Economic and social factors affecting high infant and child mortality rates in selected African countries: does globalisation play any role? Global Health 18, 69 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00855-z |
[27] | Bicego G. and Boerma J. (1993): “Maternal education and child survival: a comparative study of survey data from 17 countries”. Soc. Sci. Med. 36, 1207, 1993. |
[28] | Hartman Rachel M. and others (20230. Risk Factors for Mortality Among Children Younger Than Age 5 Years With Severe Diarrhea in Low- and Middle-income Countries: Findings From the World Health Organization-coordinated Global Rotavirus and Pediatric Diarrhea Surveillance Networks, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 76, Issue 3, 1 February 2023, Pages e1047–e1053, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac561 |
[29] | Sato R, Bolongaita S, Memirie ST, Harttgen K, De Neve JW, Verguet S. (2023). Joint distribution of child mortality and wealth across 30 sub-Saharan African countries over 2000-2019. J Glob Health 2023; 13: 04009. |
[30] | Murad, M. W., Abdullah, A. B. M., Islam, M. M. et al. (2023). Determinants of neonatal, infant and under-five mortalities: evidence from a developing country, Bangladesh. J Public Health Pol 44, 230–241 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-023-00413-w |
[31] | Bhursal and Khanal (2023) Madhav Kumar Bhusal and Shankar Prasad Khanal. A Systematic Review of Factors Associated with Under-Five Child Mortality. Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2022, Article ID 1181409, 19 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1181409. |
[32] | Dibue W M. et al. (2022). Determinants of Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Related to Anesthesia in Course of Cesarean Section in a Low-Income Country: Experience from the Centre Hospitalier Mère-Enfant Monkole. Open Journal of Anesthesiology > Vol. 12 No. 5, May 2022. |
APA Style
Zakariaou Njoumemi, Altiné Fadimatou, Samuel Honore Ntavoua, Iliassou Nkariepoun Njoya, Ousseni Mongbet, et al. (2023). Economic and Social Determinants of Infant Under-Five Years’ Mortality in Cameroon. Central African Journal of Public Health, 9(4), 102-112. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12
ACS Style
Zakariaou Njoumemi; Altiné Fadimatou; Samuel Honore Ntavoua; Iliassou Nkariepoun Njoya; Ousseni Mongbet, et al. Economic and Social Determinants of Infant Under-Five Years’ Mortality in Cameroon. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2023, 9(4), 102-112. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12
AMA Style
Zakariaou Njoumemi, Altiné Fadimatou, Samuel Honore Ntavoua, Iliassou Nkariepoun Njoya, Ousseni Mongbet, et al. Economic and Social Determinants of Infant Under-Five Years’ Mortality in Cameroon. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2023;9(4):102-112. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12
@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12, author = {Zakariaou Njoumemi and Altiné Fadimatou and Samuel Honore Ntavoua and Iliassou Nkariepoun Njoya and Ousseni Mongbet and Rahimatou Manouore}, title = {Economic and Social Determinants of Infant Under-Five Years’ Mortality in Cameroon}, journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health}, volume = {9}, number = {4}, pages = {102-112}, doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20230904.12}, abstract = {Infant mortality remains a major international public health problem. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worrying, as children are at high risk of dying before their fifth birthday. This study analyses the economic and social determinants of infant mortality in Cameroon using a cross-sectional study design. A nationwide stratified, two-stage sampling was used to sample 9,733 children and their respective mothers. A logistic regression model was used for both bivariate and multivariate analysis with a statistically significant level of p0.05) in economic and social characteristics, namely: child sex, age between 13 and 24 months, low and high child weights at birth, mother's level of education, marital status, mother's employment, religion, level of economic well-being, access to media, use of modern contraception, prenatal consultations in a health center, residence in an urban area, mothers resident in other regions of the country. The elimination of preventable deaths among children under 5 five years old by 2030 will depend on the extent to which economic and social determinants are taken into account in the public policies of resource-limited countries like Cameroon.}, year = {2023} }
TY - JOUR T1 - Economic and Social Determinants of Infant Under-Five Years’ Mortality in Cameroon AU - Zakariaou Njoumemi AU - Altiné Fadimatou AU - Samuel Honore Ntavoua AU - Iliassou Nkariepoun Njoya AU - Ousseni Mongbet AU - Rahimatou Manouore Y1 - 2023/07/27 PY - 2023 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12 DO - 10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12 T2 - Central African Journal of Public Health JF - Central African Journal of Public Health JO - Central African Journal of Public Health SP - 102 EP - 112 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-5781 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230904.12 AB - Infant mortality remains a major international public health problem. The situation in sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worrying, as children are at high risk of dying before their fifth birthday. This study analyses the economic and social determinants of infant mortality in Cameroon using a cross-sectional study design. A nationwide stratified, two-stage sampling was used to sample 9,733 children and their respective mothers. A logistic regression model was used for both bivariate and multivariate analysis with a statistically significant level of p0.05) in economic and social characteristics, namely: child sex, age between 13 and 24 months, low and high child weights at birth, mother's level of education, marital status, mother's employment, religion, level of economic well-being, access to media, use of modern contraception, prenatal consultations in a health center, residence in an urban area, mothers resident in other regions of the country. The elimination of preventable deaths among children under 5 five years old by 2030 will depend on the extent to which economic and social determinants are taken into account in the public policies of resource-limited countries like Cameroon. VL - 9 IS - 4 ER -