Abstract
This paper studies the familial association of neonatal mortality in Matlab, Bangladesh and its relationship to birth-spacing effects on mortality. Findings show that familial association is strongest for siblings of adjacent birth orders. Moreover, birth-spacing effects on neonatal mortality are stronger when the preceding child has survived the neonatal period than when it has died. Transitional (Markov), random-effects, and marginal models for correlated data are introduced, and are contrasted in interpretation and technique. Familial association of neonatal mortality can be approximated well by a first-order Markov model using generalized estimating equations (GEE) to allow for higher-order correlation.
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The author thanks the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, for providing the data. She thanks German Rodriguez, James Trussell, and Young Kim for helpful comments, and Scott Zeger for statistical advice.
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Zenger, E. Siblings’ neonatal mortality risks and birth spacing in Bangladesh. Demography 30, 477–488 (1993). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061652
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061652