Determinants of Infant Mortality in Tanzania
Date
2013-07
Authors
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
This study set out to examine the determinants of infant mortality in Tanzania. Data from the
Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), 2010 were used. A total number of 2,976
children who were born to women aged 15-49 years during the period of one year preceding the
survey were involved during the study. The specific objectives of this study were; to describe the
mothers‘ background characteristics, to establish the relationship between mothers‘ background
variables and infant mortality and to make recommendations for infant centered health
interventions to improve infant survivorship in Tanzania.
Infant mortality was the dependent variables of the study. This variable was predicted by type of
place of residence, zones of residence, educational attainment, household wealth index, place of
delivery, and employment status as independent variables. The independent variables were
assumed to work through intermediate variables which include; main floor materials, source of
drinking water, type of toilet facilities, age of the mother, birth interval, birth order, sex of the
child and breastfeeding.
The Microsoft Excels, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and STATA software were
used for the analysis of the data. Chapter one of this report is an overview of the problem at
global to the area specific (Tanzania) level; the statement of the problem, objectives and the
rationale of the study. The study hypothesized that; mothers with no education are more likely to
experience infant deaths compared to mothers with secondary and higher education and mothers
living in urban areas are less likely to experience infant mortality than women living in rural
areas.
The bivariate analysis was conducted at 95% confidence level to establish the relationship
between infant mortality and background characteristics of the mother. During this stage of
analysis, place of delivery, household wealth index, breastfeeding, birth interval and sex of child
showed a significant association with infant mortality.
Subsequently, the binary logistic regression was conducted at 95% confidence level to examine
the independent effect of background variables on infant mortality. The results (Model III)
obtained indicated that zones of residence, breastfeeding and birth interval were the significant
determinants of infant mortality.
Generally, after running the regression model (Model IV) which included only the variables
which were significant at either bivariate and/or multivariate level; zones of residence, place of
delivery, breastfeeding and birth interval emerged as the significant determinants of infant
mortality. Therefore, this study is not an exceptional one, as other studies have come out with
similar findings.
Description
Thesis (MA)-University of Ghana, 2013