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Mortality among Serere children in Senegal
Author(s) -
Rosetta Lyliane,
O'Quigley John
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american journal of human biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.559
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1520-6300
pISSN - 1042-0533
DOI - 10.1002/ajhb.1310020616
Subject(s) - demography , child survival , hazard , hazard ratio , proportional hazards model , falling (accident) , child mortality , risk factor , medicine , environmental health , geography , biology , surgery , sociology , ecology , population , confidence interval
Seasonal variation in nutritional status and child survival was studied in a representative sample of 40 Serere households in a rural area in Senegal. Hazard models (Gage: Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 76: 429–441, 1988, Rosenberg: J. Biosoc. Sci. 21(3) : 335–348, 1989) were used to investigate risk factors associated with child mortality in a Senegalese rural area. Not surprisingly the most important risk factor was the child's nutritional status, as reflected in the BMI. These models can incorporate sequentially observed information and in this way it becomes clear how a falling relative BMI manifested itself in a sharply rising hazard rate. In addition to the BMI, we investigated other risk factors and their relation to child survival. Of these, birth rank and mother's age were seen to be associated with survival and all the more so in the presence of an unfavourably evolving BMI.