Count Models for Identifying Factors Associated with Child Mortality in Ethiopia

Abstract Introduction : The under-five mortality rate, often known by its acronym U5MR or simply as the child mortality rate, indicates the probability of dying between births exactly five years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births. In comparison, the probability of dying after the first month and before reaching age 1 was 12 per 1,000, the probability of dying after age 1 and before age 5 was 10 per 1,000, and the probability of dying after age 5 and before age 15 was 7 per 1,000. Objectives : The study was aimed to determine the major factors of child mortality in Ethiopia using different counting models. In detail the study has the objective of identifying the risk factors of child mortality in Ethiopia and also to prioritize the best counting models that fit the data well. Methods: The Ethiopian demographic and health survey of 2016 was used for this study. About 10641 women aged between 15-49 were included in the survey. To analyze the data, counting models like the Poisson regression model, negative binomial model, zero-inflated regression models, and zero-inflated negative binomial regression model were applicable. Results: The results of the study indicated that of the total 10641 women respondents, 7576 (71.2%) have not faced the problem of child mortality. Thus, this result has the clue that the count models, especially the models that can handle the dispersion may be applicable. The average rate of child mortality is less than the variance of child mortality and this indicated that there is an over-dispersion of the data. Of all the candidate models, a zero-inflated negative binomial regression model was found to be the best model since it has a minimum AIC(15517). The coefficient table of the best model indicated that of child mortality for the women from rural residence is 1.2532 greater than those from urban with a 95% confidence interval (0.0905, 0.3610). Conclusion: The model comparison technique is indicated that the zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were the best mode that fit the data well. Under this model, the residency of women, birth order, Preceding Birth Interval, Size of a child at birth (smaller than average), and number of household members are significant variables in determining the status of child mortality in Ethiopia