Factors Affecting on Child Survival in Bangladesh: Cox Proportional Hazards Model Analysis

Abstract

This paper focuses mainly on the impact of utilization of heath care services on child mortality, using data from the 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and Health survey (BDHS, 2004). The study elucidate that 1 in 11 children born in Bangladesh dies before reaching the fifth birthday, while 1 in 15 children dies before reaching the first birthday. A child’s risk of dying is highest during the first month of life. From relative hazards we found that child mortality is higher among mothers who do not take sufficient ANC and also not receive assistance from medically trained personnel. Mothers whose place of delivery is any hospital were reported less child mortality as against their opposite counterparts. The result suggests that certain socioeconomic factors like mothers and father’s education are related to reduce the child mortality risks. An increase of one moth in the duration of breastfeeding by mothers decreases the hazard risks of child mortality. The household infrastructure variables like household electricity and household assets index seems to have little insight relationship with child mortality. The mortality hazard is 1.32 times higher if there is no provision of electricity in the household. Child mortality was reported 0.72 and 0.53 times less among mothers whose household’s assets position is medium and higher than lower index.