Vulnerable diseases affecting child mortality in Sierra Leone: emerging health issue
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Date
2012
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Abstract
Child mortality in Sierra Leone is the highest ranked in the world. The main causes for child mortality are
maternal factors, environmental factors and health factors. Minimal research has been carried out on health
factors in Sierra Leone. The objective of this study is to see how maternal and environmental factors have
an effect on health factors, which in turn cause child mortality. The data used were from the 2008 Sierra
Leone Demographic and Household Survey (SLDHS). The study showed that child mortality had statistically
significant factors associated with it: place of residence, birth number, religion and type of toilet facility.
Furthermore, the SLDHS had not given much information regarding the cause of diseases affecting children,
so we looked only at the effects they had on children. Acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and measles
each had one variable that was statistically significant. As for pneumonia, there were no variables associated
with children contracting the disease.
Description
Keywords
Childhood mortality, Diseases, Health facilities, Health promotion, Maternal education
Citation
Davids, S.F., Appunni, S.S. & Abduraghiem, L. (2012). Vulnerable diseases affecting child mortality in Sierra Leone: emerging health issue. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 48(3) 348-369