Co-variates of child mortality in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan: An analysis based on hazard models

Abstract In this paper the co-variates of child mortality in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan are compared using data from the World Fertility Survey. Hazard models are used to estimate the effects of demographic and socio-economic variables on the risk of death in childhood. The importance of multivariate analysis is substantiated by the finding that the effect of most factors on mortality is changed considerably when other influences are simultaneously controlled. For example, the apparent beneficial aspects of urban residence for survival are reduced. Education of parents is shown to be the most important correlate of child mortality. When other proxies for socio-economic status, such as type of sanitary facilities, were added to the analysis of the Philippines, the only country for which such data were available, the effects of education were reduced, but mother's education remained the most important co-variate of mortality.