Urban Slums and Children's Health in Less-Developed Countries

Abstract

We utilize first-difference panel regression analysis to assess the direct effect of urban slumprevalence on national level measures of under-5 mortality rates over the period 1990 to 2005.Utilizing data on 80 less developed countries, the results illustrate increasing urban slumprevalence over the period is a robust predictor of increasing child mortality rates. This effectobtains net the statistically significant influence of gross domestic product per capita, fertilityrate, and educational enrollment. Cross-sectional analyses for 2005 that include additionalcontrols provide further evidence of the mortality / urban slum relationship. The results confirmurban slum prevalence growth is an important contextual dynamic whereby the socialproduction of child mortality is enacted in the less developed countries.