Abstract
This paper estimates the net effect of seasonality on child mortality in Matlab. Results suggest that childhood mortality was well above the average monthly level in the hot, dry month of April and in November, the first harvest month of the aman crop. It was found to be remarkably low in the post harvest months of February and March. and also in August. During the hungry months of September and October, children were at a considerably increased risk of mortality. particularly from diarrheal diseases, if mothers had no schooling. but this was not the case if mothers had schooling. The protective effect of the Matlab interventions on childhood death from diarrheal diseases was also greater during the hungry months than during other months of the year.
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This is a substantially modified version of the paper presented at the 1993 meetings of the Population Association of America. The author gratefully acknowledges the advice and encouragement of Douglas Ewbank, Andrew Foster, Jane Menken, and Samuel Preston (advisor) for the analysis initially carried out as part of his doctoral dissertation, written at the University of Pennsylvania; and the very helpful comments of Radheshyam Bairagi, Stan Becker, Robert Black, Siân Curtis, Ann Riley, and Michael Strong on a subsequently revised version. He thanks the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) for permission to use the data; the University of Pennsylvania, the Ford Foundation, the Demographic and Health Surveys Program of Macro International, Mark Keintz, and Tulshi Saba for support in processing the data; and Aylene Kovensky for her editorial support. The final revision of the paper benefits from the very useful comments of Jennifer Bryce, two anonymous reviewers, Robert Mare, Editor and a deputy director of Demography, and Michel Thuriaux. The author is supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development through Cooperative Agreement DPE 5951-A-OO-9003 with the Johns Hopkins University for the Health and Child Survival Fellows Program.
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Muhuri, P.K. Estimating seasonality effects on child mortality in Matlab, Bangladesh. Demography 33, 98–110 (1996). https://doi.org/10.2307/2061716
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2061716