Trends in Major Causes of Mortality Among Children Aged 5-14 Living in Selected Urban Informal Settlements in Nairobi

Abstract

This study sought to investigate the trends in major causes of mortality among children aged 5-14 living in the urban informal settlements of Korogocho and Viwandani. Although the risk of dying for this age group is one-fifth of the risk for children under five, a significant number still die annually. In 2016, for instance, one million children were reported to have died. The cause of death data among children aged 5-14 was derived from verbal autopsy interviews conducted in the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System from January 01, 2003 to 31 December 31, 2016. The causes were categorized into 20 main items and further summarized into 4 sources, that is, from communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, external causes, and unspecified causes and annual cause-specific mortality causes also calculated by age and sex . Results indicated that the three major causes were injuries (19%), respiratory tract infections (10%) and HIV/AIDS (10%). Communicable diseases contributed the largest proportion of mortality (48%), followed by external causes (20%) and non-communicable diseases (13%). The major causes of death among male children aged 5-14 were injuries, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS at 20%, 10% and 9% respectively while among female children, the causes were meningitis (12%), respiratory tract infections (12%), HIV/AIDS (11%) and other non-communicable (11%). This study is important in informing targeted public health interventions for this age group. For instance, focusing on male deaths caused by injuries and especially by road traffic accidents. On the other hand the study underscores the need for integrated interventions for closely related diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis or RTIs and meningitis which are key caused of death for children aged 5-14.