Place of Residence, Environmental Characteristics and Child Mortality in the Princess Marie Louise Hospital Catchment Area

Abstract

Consistently studies have shown that proximity to health services has a bearing on infant and child mortality. They commonly cite a distance of 4km beyond which the risk of under five death risks increase by four-fold. Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital is located at the heart of Accra Metropolitan Area serving a catchment area of about 35km². Using geographic information system’s spatial analytical tools, this study analyzed spatial clustering of under five deaths reported at PML and compared that to distance travel to access service from PML. The study also compared under five deaths in a community to three environmental risk factors including access to improved toilet facility, access to potable water and the use of unimproved cooking methods. The study finds that high under five deaths occurred in communities closer to PML in similar frequency as they occur in distances further away. Similarly communities with high under five deaths are not necessarily the communities with more people with poor environmental characterization such as unimproved toilet facility, no access to potable water and the use of unimproved cooking methods. The study recommends that future studies may look deep into other factors contributing to under five mortality such as availability of intervening health facility, mothers’ education, income and distance accessible roads.

Keywords: Child Mortality, Under 5 deaths, spatial pattern