Changes in Under-5 Mortality Rate and Major Childhood Diseases: A Country-Level Analysis

Abstract

Under-5 child mortality decreased throughout the world by 49% from 1990 to 2013. However, it is unknown if this reduction was more effectively achieved in countries with a higher child mortality burden. We investigated the reduction of cause-specific global child mortality burden in 2000-2010. A total of 195 countries were selected for this analysis. A random-effect or fixed-effect model was chosen based on the Hausman test. Countries with a higher child mortality rate performed better with regard to the prevention of child deaths from major infectious diseases, but cause-specific progress was highly variable by disease within each country. Pneumonia-specific progress was much slower than that for diarrhea, and neonatal-specific child mortality increased in some countries. With a few exceptions, the overall performance in the countries with the largest share of child deaths was not good. This study identified priority interventions for child survival in the post-2015 period.