| dc.description.abstract | Under-five mortality rate is the key indicator of both child well-being and coverage
of child survival interventions factoring social and economic development.
This is in line with Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) projects reduction
of under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015. Somalia is one of the countries
with the highest mortality rate in the world. This study was conducted to
identify the factors contributing to under-five mortality in Somalia using discriminant
analysis. The data used was from UNICEF 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey (MICS). Using discriminant analysis, a stepwise procedure was used
to identify only the significant variables which were ranked according to Wilk’s
Lambda values. The canonical discriminant function coefficients (unstandardized
and standardized) were also calculated for independent variables. Based on this
procedure, children ever born, source of drinking water, age of the mother, current
marital status of the mother and region of residence were found to be significantly
contributing to under-five mortality in Somalia. The classification accuracy of the
model was 73.8%. Therefore, the discriminant function constructed was adequate
and thus can be used to classify a child into any of the two groups, dead or alive,
based on significant factors that are contributing to under-five mortality. | en_US |
