Geographic Differentials in Mortality of Children in Mozambique: Their Implications for Achievement of Millennium Development Goal 4.

In the light of Mozambique’s progress towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 4 of reducing mortality of children aged less than five years (under-five mortality) by two-thirds within 2015, this study investigated the relationship between the province of mother’s residence and under-five mortality in Mozambique, using data from the 2003 Mozambican Demographic and Health Survey. The analyses included 10,326 children born within 10 years before the survey. Results of univariate and multivariate analyses showed a significant association between under-five mortality and province (region) of mother’s residence. Children of mothers living in the North provinces (Niassa, Cabo Delgado, and Nampula) and the Central provinces (Zambezia, Sofala, Manica, and Tete) had higher risks of mortality than children whose mothers lived in the South provinces, especially Maputo province and Maputo city. However, controlling for the demographic, socioeconomic and environmental variables, the significance found between the place of mother’s residence and under-five mortality reduced slightly. This suggests that other variables (income distribution and trade, density of population, distribution of the basic infrastructure, including healthcare services, climatic and ecologic factors), which were not included in the study, may have confounding effects. This study supports the thought that interventions aimed at reducing under-five mortality should be tailored to take into account the subnational/regional variation in economic development. However, research is warranted to further investigate the potential determinants behind the observed differences in under-five mortality.

Changes in marriage age and first birth interval in Huaning County, Yunnan Province, PR China.

The timing of marriages, first birth interval and the prevalence of premarital conception (PMC) among women of successive birth cohorts in one rural county in Yunnan, China, were examined. Detailed pregnancy histories were collected for 1,336 women aged 15-64 years using a Life History Calendar. The rising marriage age and shorter first birth interval correspond to over-all changes in the Chinese society over the same time period. The mean age at first marriage for women born before 1950 was just below 20, and 22.5 among women born 1976-1980. The later marriage age was partly offset by the dramatic shortening of the first birth interval from over 30 months in the oldest cohort to 11-12 months in the youngest. One explanation of the shortening of the first birth interval may be the increase in premarital conception. Among the young women in our study almost one-third of first pregnancies were conceived before marriage.