IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i12p6068-d1165187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequalities of Infant Mortality in Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Nasser B. Ebrahim

    (Department of Public Health, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Republic of Korea)

  • Madhu S. Atteraya

    (Department of Social Welfare, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

(1) Background: Infant mortality is viewed as a core health indicator of overall community health. Although globally child survival has improved significantly over the years, Sub-Saharan Africa is still the region with the highest infant mortality in the world. In Ethiopia, infant mortality is still high, albeit substantial progress has been made in the last few decades. However, there is significant inequalities in infant mortalities in Ethiopia. Understanding the main sources of inequalities in infant mortalities would help identify disadvantaged groups, and develop equity-directed policies. Thus, the purpose of the study was to provide a diagnosis of inequalities of infant mortalities in Ethiopia from four dimensions of inequalities (sex, residence type, mother’s education, and household wealth). (2) Methods: Data disaggregated by infant mortalities and infant mortality inequality dimensions (sex, residence type, mother’s education, and household wealth) from the WHO Health Equity Monitor Database were used. Data were based on Ethiopia’s Demographic and Health Surveys (EDHS) of 2000 ( n = 14,072), 2005 ( n = 14,500), 2011 ( n = 17,817), and 2016 ( n = 16,650) households. We used the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) software to find estimates of infant mortalities along with inequality measures. (3) Results: Inequalities related to sex, residence type, mother’s education, and household wealth still exist; however, differences in infant mortalities arising from residence type, mother’s education, and household wealth were narrowing with the exception of sex-related inequality where male infants were markedly at a disadvantage. (4) Conclusions: Although inequalities of infant mortalities related to social groups still exist, there is a substantial sex related infant mortality inequality with disproportional deaths of male infants. Efforts directed at reducing infant mortality in Ethiopia should focus on improving the survival of male infants.

Suggested Citation

  • Nasser B. Ebrahim & Madhu S. Atteraya, 2023. "Inequalities of Infant Mortality in Ethiopia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-12, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:12:p:6068-:d:1165187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6068/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/12/6068/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Braveman, P.A. & Kumanyika, S. & Fielding, J. & LaVeist, T. & Borrell, L.N. & Manderscheid, R. & Troutman, A., 2011. "Health disparities and health equity: The issue is justice," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(SUPPL. 1), pages 149-155.
    2. Yankauer, A., 1990. "What infant mortality tells us," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(6), pages 653-654.
    3. Jorge Garcia-Hombrados, 2022. "Child marriage and infant mortality: causal evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(3), pages 1163-1223, July.
    4. Anne Schlotheuber & Ahmad Reza Hosseinpoor, 2022. "Summary Measures of Health Inequality: A Review of Existing Measures and Their Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-25, March.
    5. Read, J.S. & Troendle, J.F. & Klebanoff, M.A., 1997. "Infectious disease mortality among infants in the United States, 1983 through 1987," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 87(2), pages 192-198.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Le, Dung D. & Molina, Teresa & Ibuka, Yoko & Goto, Rei, 2024. "The Intergenerational Health Effects of Child Marriage Bans," IZA Discussion Papers 17089, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Jessica Naidu & Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci & Tanvir C. Turin, 2023. "A Critical Lens on Health: Key Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis and Its Benefits to Anti-Racism in Population Public Health Research," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-10, February.
    3. Elisabeth Paul & Céline Deville & Oriane Bodson & N'koué Emmanuel Sambiéni & Ibrahima Thiam & Marc Bourgeois & Valéry Ridde & Fabienne Fecher, 2019. "How is equity approached in universal health coverage? An analysis of global and country policy documents in Benin and Senegal," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/298047, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Meenakshi Richardson & Sara F. Waters, 2023. "Indigenous Voices Against Suicide: A Meta-Synthesis Advancing Prevention Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(22), pages 1-19, November.
    5. Gagnon-Dufresne, Marie-Catherine & Gautier, Lara & Beaujoin, Camille & Boivin, Pauline & Coulibaly, Abdourahmane & Richard, Zoé & Gomes de Medeiros, Stéphanie & Dutra Da Nóbrega, Raylson Emanuel & de , 2023. "Did the design and planning of testing and contact tracing interventions for COVID-19 consider social inequalities in health? A multiple case study from Brazil, Canada, France & Mali," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    6. Karriem S. Watson & Katherine Y. Tossas & Yazmin San Miguel & Nicole Gastala & Liliana G. San Miguel & Scott Grumeretz & Vida Henderson & Robert Winn & Masahito Jimbo & Keith B. Naylor & Megan E. Greg, 2023. "Mi-CARE: Comparing Three Evidence-Based Interventions to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening among Ethnic Minorities within Three Different Clinical Contexts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(22), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Arielle R. Deutsch & Rebecca Lustfield & Mohammad S. Jalali, 2022. "Community‐based system dynamics modelling of stigmatized public health issues: Increasing diverse representation of individuals with personal experiences," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 734-749, July.
    8. Dunleavy, Spencer & Douchee, Jeremiah & Liu, Tina & Johnson, Natrina L. & Komaromy, Miriam & Chatterjee, Avik, 2024. "Racism, not race: Quantitative analysis of the use of race and racism in the addiction literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    9. Anand, Sudhir, 2021. "The many faces of health justice," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112537, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Evrosina I. Isaac & Andrea R. Meisman & Kirstin Drucker & Stephanie Violante & Kathryn L. Behrhorst & Alfonso Floyd & Jennifer M. Rohan, 2020. "The Relationship between Health Disparities, Psychosocial Functioning and Health Outcomes in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant Populations: Recommendations for Clinical Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-14, March.
    11. Masaya Kobayashi & Hikari Ishido & Jiro Mizushima & Hirotaka Ishikawa, 2022. "Multi-Dimensional Dynamics of Psychological Health Disparities under the COVID-19 in Japan: Fairness/Justice in Socio-Economic and Ethico-Political Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-45, December.
    12. Alaina Kinol & Elijah Miller & Hannah Axtell & Ilana Hirschfeld & Sophie Leggett & Yutong Si & Jennie C. Stephens, 2023. "Climate justice in higher education: a proposed paradigm shift towards a transformative role for colleges and universities," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 1-29, February.
    13. San Juanita García & Taylor Trummel & Monica Cornejo & Katherine Maldonado & Ana Ojeda & Humberto Flores & Bruce G. Link, 2021. "Immigrant Health Inequities: Exposing Diversions and White Supremacy," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, September.
    14. Kerri A. Vanderbom & Yochai Eisenberg & Allison H. Tubbs & Teneasha Washington & Alex X. Martínez & Amy Rauworth, 2018. "Changing the Paradigm in Public Health and Disability through a Knowledge Translation Center," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-10, February.
    15. Chen, Taoshan, 2023. "How does Monitoring and Evaluation Affect Racial Health Inequality? Evidence from PMAQ Program in Brazil," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 51, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    16. Clare E.B. Cannon, 2020. "Towards Convergence: How to Do Transdisciplinary Environmental Health Disparities Research," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-23, March.
    17. Collin, Matthew & Talbot, Theodore, 2023. "Are age-of-marriage laws enforced? Evidence from developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    18. van Schalkwyk, May C.I. & Barlow, Pepita & Siles-Brügge, Gabriel & Jarman, Holly & Hervey, Tamara & McKee, Martin, 2021. "Brexit and trade policy: an analysis of the governance of UK trade policy and what it means for health and social justice," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110261, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Liu, Jiawei & Niederdeppe, Jeff, 2024. "Effects of communicating health disparities using social comparison framing: A comprehensive review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    20. Judith Muhonja Ochieng & Janice D. Crist, 2021. "“I put diabetes on the shelf†: African-American Women’s Perceptions of Risk for Diabetes Complications," Clinical Nursing Research, , vol. 30(7), pages 1012-1022, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:12:p:6068-:d:1165187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.