| dc.description.abstract | Child mortality, also known as under-five mortality refers to the death of infants and children under age of five. The objective of the study was to identify the determinants of under five mortality in Eastern Uganda. A total number of 5,039 children whom their mothers were interviewed and revealed their living status were included in the study. The data was analyzed at univariate, Bivariate and multivariate levels of analysis.
The results revealed that wealth index, mothers age at first birth, place of residence and religion has adverse significant impact on under-five mortality in Eastern Uganda. However, while there are factors that adversely impact on under-five mortality, others such as source of drinking water, mothers’ education and occupation, birth order, child’s sex, place of delivery and breast feeding reduce its likelihood.
It is therefore recommended that the governments should encourage compulsory education from S1-S6 in order to delay early marriages for school going girls. This will help the girl child to experience child birth after attaining the age of twenty and above. This will further help in increasing their knowledge in health issues, a factor that will lead to reduce under five mortality in the eastern Uganda. Having higher education will also increase chances of mothers participating in labor opportunities which lead to women empowerment and their decision making more so in the choice of health matters. The government should be relentless in family planning interventions. Through such campaigns, demographic issues like birth spacing should be given the importance they deserve. Greater efforts need to be put in place to ensure provision of basic services like water for all. Availability of safe sources of drinking water will significantly reduce child mortality and therefore investments in this sector will be rewarding. | en_US |
