Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

Table 8.2 Early childhood mortality rates by socioeconomic characteristics
Neonatal, postneonatal, infant, child, and under-5 mortality rates for the 10-year period
preceding the survey, by background characteristic, Timor-Leste 2009-10
Background
characteristic
Neonatal
mortality
(NN)
Postneonatal
mortality 1
(PNN)
Infant
mortality
( 1q 0)
Child
mortality
( 4q 1)
Under-5
mortality
( 5q 0)
Residence
Urban 21 21 42 20 61
Rural
District
28 33 61 28 87
Aileu 27 29 56 21 76
Ainaro 31 46 77 22 97
Baucau 11 18 30 12 42
Bobonaro 27 23 50 36 85
Covalima 37 38 76 21 95
Dili 21 18 39 22 60
Ermera 23 47 70 34 102
Lautem 36 33 69 31 98
Liquiçá 31 37 68 35 101
Manatuto 31 19 50 20 69
Manufahi 44 19 62 25 86
Oecussi 25 41 66 27 92
Viqueque
Mother’s education
24 31 54 24 77
No education 27 34 61 31 90
Primary 27 32 59 27 84
Secondary 26 25 51 19 69
More than secondary
Wealth quintile
(9) (12) (21) * *
Lowest 24 37 62 27 87
Second 30 38 68 28 94
Middle 29 30 59 32 89
Fourth 25 30 56 27 81
Highest 22 16 38 15 52
Note: Numbers in parentheses are based on 250-499 unweighted exposed persons; an asterisk
indicates that a rate is based on fewer than 250 unweighted exposed persons and has been
suppressed.
1 Computed as the difference between the infant and neonatal mortality rates
As expected, a mother’s education is inversely related to a child’s risk of dying. Under-5
mortality among children of mothers with no education (90 deaths per 1,000 live births) is
substantially higher than under-5 mortality among children of women with secondary level education
(69 deaths per 1,000 live births). The direct association between level of education and under-5
mortality is also seen for infant mortality. Children of women with no education (61 deaths per 1,000
live births) are much more likely to die in the first year than children of women with secondary
education (51 deaths per 1,000 live births).The relationship between household wealth and under-5
mortality is not always consistent, although children born to mothers in the highest wealth quintile
clearly are at much lower risk of dying than children born to mothers in the other quintiles.
8.5 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND CHILD MORTALITY
Studies have shown that a number of demographic factors are strongly associated with the
survival chances of young children. These factors include sex of child, age of mother at birth, birth
order, length of preceding birth interval, and size of child at birth. Table 8.3 shows the relationship
between childhood mortality and these demographic variables. Again, for all variables except birth
size, mortality estimates are calculated for the 10-year period preceding the survey to reduce sampling
variability. Mortality rates by birth size are for the five-year period preceding the survey because
information on birth size was collected only for children born in the past five years.
Childhood mortality is higher for males than females (Table 8.3) for all mortality rates.
Under-5 mortality rates for male and female children are 85 and 76 deaths per 1,000 live births,
respectively. The excess mortality among male children is mostly due to their higher biological risk
during the first month of life.
Infant and Child Mortality | 103