A study examines the prevalence of child mortality in Africa. Over the past 50 years, global mortality rates for children younger than 5 years have declined precipitously. However, the number of mothers who have experienced the death of a child in sub-Saharan Africa remains unestablished. Using demographic and health survey data collected between 1986 and 2017, Emily Smith-Greenaway and Jenny Trinitapoli estimated the number of mothers aged 20-49 years from 20 sub-Saharan African countries who have experienced the death of a child. Mothers who died prior to the study were not included in the analysis, leaving 747,984 mothers in the sample. Between the late 1980s and 1990s, approximately 33% of mothers aged 20-44 years in most of the countries analyzed experienced the death of at least one infant. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, in most sub-Saharan countries, approximately 50% of mothers aged 45-49 years had lost a child younger than 5 years, whereas the percentage of mothers was around 75% each in Benin, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. As recently as 2010, more than 50% of mothers aged 45-49 years had lost at least one child of any age. The findings suggest that despite improved child mortality rates, child mortality remains common in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the authors.
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Article # 19-07343: "Maternal cumulative prevalence measures of child mortality show heavy burden in sub-Saharan Africa," by Emily Smith-Greenaway and Jenny Trinitapoli.
MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Smith-Greenaway, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; tel: 540-272-7739; email: < smithgre@usc.edu >; Jenesse Miller; University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; tel: 213-810-8554; email: < jenessem@usc.edu >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences