| dc.description.abstract | The study is set out to investigate the impact of water and sanitation on under-five mortality in urban Kenya and mainly focusing on slum and non-slum areas. Specifically, in addition to these two environmental factors, the study sought to determine the effects of selected social economic, social cultural, other environmental and bio demographic factors on under-five mortality in urban Kenya in a bid to ascertain the true effect of these environmental factors while controlling for other factors. The study will go further to identify the impact of these variables within slum and non- slum which includes deficiencies of a combination of improved water and sanitation respectively on under five mortality in urban Kenya.
This study is based on a national sample of 5949 children from 2003 Kenya demographic and health survey (KDHS) data of which 502 died before their fifth birthday. It further samples 1143 children from the urban areas of Kenya of which 80 died before celebrating their fifth birthday.
Mosley and Chen (1984) theoretical framework was adapted to guide this study. This study utilizes descriptive statistics to compare the effects of different independent variables on the dependent variable. These includes cross tabs, frequencies and percentages. It will further utilize logistic regression model to test the hypothesis.
Results show that improved water (piped, covered, rain and bottled water), improved sanitation (flush, ventilated pit latrines), maternal education, maternal occupation (used in this study as income proxy), place of residence, marital status and mothers age all affects under five mortality. In the multivariate level, the logistic regression results showed that only Maternal Age and education level have a significant effect on under- five mortality.
Findings of this study shows there is the general trend of higher child and infant mortality in slum areas partly attributed to socio economic, environmental and other problems that faces people living in slum areas. The study recommended that there is need to invest further on education as education is the key to emancipating women from poverty and to ensure reduction of child and infant mortality.
The study therefore recommends further research should be carried out to investigate the effects of cultural, traditions, beliefs, customs and practices that affect under-five mortality in urban Kenya if at all they exist in urban areas of Kenya. | en |
