Correlates of under five mortality in Southern Nation Nationalities People Regional State: A spatial data analysis

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to identify determinants of under-five child mortality, to describe spatial dependence of child mortality and to develop models specifying risk factors used to diagnose of child mortality among districts in Southern Nation Nationalities People Regional State (SNNPRS) of Ethiopia by using 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey collected from 75 districts by employing spatial models. Spatial lag and spatial error model were fitted to the data though spatial lag model specification was taken as the best fit for child mortality rate. Accordingly, from global and local spatial analysis, it was found that children mortality rate in one district was directly affected by that of its neighbors. The results revealed that water closet, proportion of children under five, toilet availability, and mothers; basic education attainment, vaccination coverage, size at birth, mother current working status, ORS information, altitude, stunting score and wasting score of children were significant determinants of children mortality rate. Thus, it is suggested that the geographically targeted preparation on accumulation of treatment that can be useful to control and stabilize spillover (nearest area spread) of disease such as diarrhea, malaria, and fever over space is recommended. It can be suggested that the government needs to make intervention to mitigate the spatial variation of the prevalence of mortality across regions.