Abstract
Background: Studies into risk factors and causes of childhood mortality present the opportunity
to identify intervention programs appropriate in different populations in our attempt to reach the
WHO Millennium Development Goals.
Objectives: To determine whether there is an association between parental labour migration and
child mortality in the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) in 2002.
Methods: Secondary data extracted from the longitudinal database from the Agincourt Health
and Demographic Surveillance System were used to study the association between father’s
migration and child mortality in 2002 using logistic regression and survival analysis. The
analysis included 10050 children born between 01 January 1998 and 31 December 2002.
Results: The child mortality in 2002 was 12.9 deaths per 1000 person years. There was a
statistically significant difference in death rate in infants (50.9 deaths per 1000 person years), and
in children aged 1-4 years (9.6 deaths per 1000 person years). There was no association observed
between migration and child mortality (OR: 0.97, 95% CI 0.59-1.60). The factors associated with
mortality were the age of the child, the number of siblings that a child had, the refugee status of
the mother, age of the mother at birth, breast feeding and whether the mother was deceased or
not. The chances of dying were lower in older children compared to younger ones (OR: 0.58,
95% CI 0.50-0.68). Children who had one or more siblings were less likely to die (OR: 0.62,
95% CI 0.51-0.93) compared to those with none. Child mortality risk was higher in children born
to refugees than to local residents (OR: 1.56, 95% CI 1.05-2.33). Those children who were not
breast fed had increased chances of dying than those breast fed (OR: 5.33, 95% CI 2.60-10.95).
The death of a mother increased the risk of the child dying (OR: 9.35, 95% CI 5.02-17.40).
About 84.3% of migrants were sending remittances to members of the households remaining behind but there was no significant difference in child mortality among remitters and nonremitters.
The leading causes of death among households with migrant father and those with a
non-migrant father were infectious diseases (mainly HIV/AIDS related illness) with 47% and
50% respectively.
Conclusion:
The results from this study suggest that on average children of migrants in a rural area in South
Africa do not experience increased mortality compared to children of non-migrants. The findings
from this study where no association between fathers’ migration and child mortality was
observed were rather inconclusive. So far, this area of research has not been adequately
addressed and much remains to be learned about the lives of children left behind by fathers
migrating to seek employment elsewhere. For future studies it would be advisable to study in
great depth the long term effects of migration on child mortality particularly in Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/5015 |
| Date | 09 July 2008 |
| Creators | Ketlogetswe, Akeem Tshepo |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 2065057 bytes, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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