Page 63 - IJPS-7-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Child mortality by residence in Ethiopia

community level factors. For example, the household size and Gambella. Furthermore, the present paper suggests
was found to explaining intra-urban inequalities in child that substantial efforts to reduce intra-urban inequalities in
mortality by wealth status. This might be linked to having child mortality shall focus more on household size. Finally,
larger household size may reduce access to clean water and the importance of the finding, if taken into cognizance and
improved sanitation facilities and childhood nutrition status extended to cover the entire country, will not only reduce
within poor urban households as compared to non-poor, inequality in child mortality but also will bring the country
which, in turn, affects child survival in Ethiopia. Regional close to achieving SDG targets by 2030.
categories by wealth status were another contributing factor
to explain intra-urban inequality in child mortality in this Acknowledgments
study. One of the potential reasons for this could be existence We are grateful to the MEASURE DHS program for giving
of urban slums with environmentally and economically us free access to the original data.
poor dwellers in emerging and developed regions as well
as urban regional categories, including Addis Ababa, the Funding
capital of Ethiopia. And hence, the present paper suggests None.
that substantial efforts to reduce residential inequalities
in child mortality shall focus more on child’s birth size, Conflict of interest
birth order, sanitation facility, and socioeconomic status of
different population subgroups of the country. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
The present paper is not free from any limitations. Author contributions
For example, we focused on well-known and extensively Conceptualization: Negussie Shiferaw Tessema
reported determinants of child mortality in the literature, Formal analysis: Negussie Shiferaw Tessema
whereas others such as childhood nutrition status Writing – original draft: Negussie Shiferaw Tessema
(including exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months Writing – review & editing: Chalachew Getahun Desta,
and appropriate complementary feeding) as well as the Nigatu Regassa Geda, and Terefe Degefa Boshera
households’ affordability and accessibility to care and
the food insecurity and distance to the nearest health Ethics approval and consent to participate
facility remain unexplored. In this regard, the necessity of
assessing the factors related to the urban and rural disparity For the original conduct of the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic
in child mortality may not be well explained. And hence, and Health Survey (DHS), ethical approval was obtained
the authors agree that the present work may represent just from the ethical committee of the ICF. The enumerators
an early attempt to a much more integrated investigation obtained informed consent and authorization to
of the determinants of child mortality in Ethiopia. More anonymously use the data from all survey participants. In
studies are needed in the near future to disentangle the our study, we obtained permission to use the data from the
complex relationships among the factors contributing to DHS program. No further ethical approval was required,
urban and rural inequalities in child mortality in Ethiopia. as our study solely involved secondary data analysis of
publicly available data that do not contain any identifiable
5. Conclusions information that links to the actual survey participants.
Authors also confirm that all methods were carried out in
This study attempted to answer the research question that accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
inquires the key factors that explain both between and within
rural-urban inequalities in child mortality. The findings Consent for publication
suggest that there is statistically significant residential
inequality in child mortality in rural than urban settings. Not applicable.
The findings also showed that some residential inequalities Availability of data
in child mortality occur at a level that could be addressed
by targeting children, households, and some occurs at a The dataset can be accessed at https://dhsprogram.com/
community level that could be addressed by targeting regions. data/available-datasets.cfm.
Following the findings of decomposition analysis, critical
multifaceted regionally specific interventions are suggested Further disclosure
to be a potentially better approach for addressing the intra- This article is part of the PhD research project in Population
rural and intra-urban differential in child mortality with Studies at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, entitled
policies tailored to the disadvantageous specific condition in “Inequalities in Child Survival in Ethiopia: A two-decade
emerging regions, that is, Afar, Somali, Benishangul-Gumuz, experience”, by the corresponding author.

Volume 7 Issue 2 (2021) 57 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v7i2.392