To what extent does access to improved sanitation explain the observed differences in infant mortality in Africa?

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title To what extent does access to improved sanitation explain the observed differences in infant mortality in Africa?
 
Creator Alemu, Aye M.
 
Subject Rural Health; Primary Health care; Education Infant Mortality; Improved Sanitation; Panel Data; Fixed Effect Model; Africa
Description Background: To my knowledge, there was no systematic study so far that analysed the extent of the impact of improved sanitation on infant mortality in the African context with long years of full-fledged longitudinal data.Aim: The aim of this study was to empirically examine the extent to which improved sanitation explains the observed differences in infant mortality under 5 years of age across African countries.Setting: The study covered a panel of 33 countries from north, south, east, west and central Africa for the years 1994–2013.Methods: The study first conducted Durbin–Wu–Hausman specification test and then used fixed effect model. In addition, Praison–Winsten regression with corrected heteroscedasticity was employed to verify the consistency of the results that were revealed in using fixed effect estimation method.Results: The study revealed that a 1% increase in access to improved sanitation would reduce infant mortality by a rate of about two infant deaths per 1000 live births. Also, the study confirmed that a significant decline in infant mortality rate was highly linked to improvements in education, health and sustainable economic growth.Conclusion: The findings have wide implications especially for African countries for which decreasing infant mortality is one of the most crucial priorities in the continent to reverse the current deep-rooted challenges related to human capital formation.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor SolBridge International School of Business
Date 2017-05-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Review; Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v9i1.1370
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 9, No 1 (2017); 9 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1370/2046 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1370/2045 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1370/2047 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/1370/2028
 
Coverage Africa 1994-2013 Age
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Aye M. Alemu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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