Page 53 - IJPS-7-2

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Residential inequalities in child mortality in

Ethiopia: Multilevel and decomposition analyses

Negussie Shiferaw Tessema*, Chalachew Getahun Desta, Nigatu Regassa Geda,
and Terefe Degefa Boshera
Center for Population Studies, College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia is among the five countries which account for half of the global under-
five deaths, with the under-five mortality rate of 67 deaths/1000 live births in 2016.
Ethiopia had significant inequalities in child mortality between rural and urban areas
where the risk of child mortality is largely higher in rural than urban areas. Inequalities
in the distribution of factors influencing child mortality need to explain the gap
between and within urban-rural areas. The study used the risk of child mortality as
an outcome variable. Multilevel logistic regression was used as a standard model
for assessing the effect of socioeconomic and contextual factors on child mortality.
Furthermore, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique was used to explain the
urban-rural, intra-rural, and intra-urban inequalities in child mortality. The birth order
*Corresponding author: and sanitation type seem to be the most important explanatory factors, followed by
Negussie Shiferaw Tessema wealth status in explaining the rural-urban inequality of 39 deaths/1000 children.
(ntshiferaw@gmail.com) Mean proportion indicates that there would be 47 deaths/1000 children for urban
Citation: Negussie S.T., poor and 21 deaths/1000 children for urban non-poor, resulting in 26 deaths/1000
Chalachew G.D., Nigatu R.G., & children change in urban poor when applying the urban non-poor coefficient and
Terefe D. B., (2021). Residential characteristics to urban poor behavior. The findings showed that some residential
inequalities in child mortality
in Ethiopia: Multilevel and inequalities in child mortality occur at a level that could be addressed by targeting
decomposition analyses. children, households, and some occurs at a community level that could be addressed
International Journal of Population by targeting regions. Therefore, any residential sensitive and specific interventions
Studies, 7(2):47-59.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v7i2.392 should consider child’s and household’s characteristics, and geographical location.
Received: October 11, 2022
Accepted: November 18, 2022 Keywords: Child mortality; Inequality; Residence; Intra-rural; Intra-urban;
Rural-urban; Ethiopia
Published Online: December 16,
2022
Copyright: © 2022 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article 1. Introduction
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Inequality in child mortality is a global priority. Socioeconomic inequality in child
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, mortality has been a concern of the United Nations since the adoption of the World
provided the original work is Population Plan of Action in 1974 and its implementation agreed on at the International
properly cited. Conference on Population in 1984 (United Nations, 1991). The 1984 International
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Conference on Population strongly urged all governments, regardless of the mortality
Publishing remains neutral with levels of their population to reduce mortality levels and socioeconomic and geographical
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional differentials in their countries and to improve health among all population groups,
affiliations. especially among those groups where the mortality levels are the highest (United Nations.

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2021) 47 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v7i2.392