Household Environmental Factors and Child Mortality

Abstract

This study examines the effect of household environment factors on child mortality in Kenya using the KDHS 2003 data. The household environmental variables analysed include toilet facility, source of water, type of cooking fuel and number of under five children. The controls variables used in the study are maternal education, type of place of residence, sex of the child, age of the mother, birth order and preceding birth interval. The study is conceptualized using the Mosley and Chen framework on child mortality. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression are the main methods of analysis used in this study. The major findings of this study is that; of the household environment factors source of water, number of under five children in a household and type of cooking fuel emerged as predictors of child mortality. Recommendations..emanating from this study include; the need to scale up programmes and accelerate the intervention strategies especially those associated with improvement of source of water, reduction of fertility and use of cleaner fuels so as to reduce the risk factors associated with child, mortality. Since child mortality has been seen to vary by type of place of residence it would be necessary to study the differentials by regions, additionally it would be paramount to study other pathways through which household environment factors act to influence child mortality in Kenya.