Under-Five Mortality in Nigeria: Spatial Exploration and Spatial Scan Statistics for Cluster Detection

Reducing under-five mortality has been said to be a key health outcome in developing countries. Several factors have been identified to have a significant impact on under-five mortality: pneumonia, diarrhea, poverty, safe water and sanitary, mother's education, mothers age. Disease mapping techniques were applied to data on 4911 recorded cases of under-five mortality in the 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The Northwestern region accounts for about 37% of under-five mortality and has the highest proportion of (32%) out of the 77% home delivery. The average age at first marriage was 18years for Southwest and 14 years for Northwest. 33% of the respondents who had lost a child indicate that they experienced long labour, 23% excessive bleeding, 15% fever and/or bad vaginal smelling and 25% experienced convulsions not caused by fever around the time of giving birth. SaTScan confirms cluster detection in the Northwest region with a p-value of 0.001. This study suggests possible geographical variations in under-five mortality in Nigeria.