Impact of parental education on number of under five children death per mother in Bangladesh

Abstract

One of the leading challenges of social development is the reduction of children’s deaths under the age of five. The primary focus of this research is to study the potential impact of parental education on under five children death in Bangladesh utilizing a secondary dataset extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2017–18. The total count of deceased children within a family is a non-negative numerical variable. The mean number of under five children death per 100 mothers is found to be 20 with variance of around 27, which indicates the presence of overdispersion. As the response variable exhibits 84.2% zero counts, we have considered three regression models in this research; Poisson model, zero-inflated Poisson model, and zero-inflated negative binomial model. Finally, zero-inflated negative binomial model, exhibiting the lowest AIC value, indicates that both maternal and paternal education have significant protective impact on under five children death. Specifically, greater levels of formal education achieved by the parents are associated with a decreased rate of children death.