Journal Article

LEVELS AND DIFFERENTIALS IN CHILDHOOD MORTALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1977–1998

TIMÆUS, IAN M., LAUBSCHER, RIA, NANNAN, NADINE, BRADSHAW, DEBBIE

2007

Overview

This study uses the 1996 Census and the 1998 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) to investigate the level of and trend in infant and child mortality and their covariates in South Africa. Census estimates of childhood mortality are higher than those from the DHS. Analysis suggests that the former overestimate mortality while the latter are probably slightly too low. Both inquiries document a reversal of the trend toward lower mortality in the 1990s. Under-five mortality increased by about a third during the five years up to early 1998. By then the infant mortality rate was about 55 per 1000 and under-five mortality 72 per 1000. Other factors may explain the tapering off of the decline in mortality after the late 1980s but AIDS deaths account for its increase. Inequalities in childhood mortality between population groups, rooted in past discriminatory apartheid policies, shrank between the late-1970s and mid-1990s. However, they remain substantial and are largely unaccounted for by province, metropolitan residence and inter-group differences in mothers’ education. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is likely to offset the beneficial impact of post-apartheid pro-poor policies and may exacerbate racial differences in childhood mortality in South Africa. There is an urgent need to improve the routine collection of statistics to monitor child mortality so as to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and track inequalities.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome / Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - mortality / Adolescent / Adult / Africa / AIDS / Analysis / Apartheid / Biological and medical sciences / Censuses / Child / Child mortality / Child Mortality - trends / Child, Preschool / Childhood / Children / Children & youth / Death / Deaths / Demographics / Demography / Developing countries / Epidemics / Epidemiologic Studies / Epidemiology / Female / Foreign aid / General aspects / Health surveys / HIV / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Inequality / Infant / Infant mortality / Infant Mortality - trends / Infant, Newborn / Infants / International community / International society / Male / Maternal and infant welfare / Medical sciences / Middle Aged / Miscellaneous / Mortality Rates / Mothers / National security / Population growth / Population policy / Post-apartheid era / Poverty alleviation / Prejudice / Public health. Hygiene / Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine / Racial differences / Social inequality / Socioeconomic Factors / South Africa / South Africa - epidemiology / Statistics / Studies / Time series / Trends