How does progress towards the child mortality millennium development goal affect inequalities between the poorest and least poor? Analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data
BMJ 2005; 331 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38659.588125.79 (Published 17 November 2005) Cite this as: BMJ 2005;331:1180
- Kath A Moser, lecturer (kath.moser@ons.gov.uk)1,
- David A Leon, professor1,
- Davidson R Gwatkin, consultant on health and poverty2
- Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT
- 6483 Wishbone Terrace, Cabin John, Maryland 20818, USA
- Correspondence to: K A Moser
- Accepted 13 October 2005
Introduction
The millennium development goals (MDGs) have been widely accepted as a framework for improving health and welfare worldwide. Child mortality is one of the most crucial and avoidable global health concerns. In many low income countries, 10-20% of children die before reaching 5 years (compared with, for example, 0.7% in England and Wales). The child mortality MDG (to reduce the under 5 mortality rate by two thirds between 1990 and 2015) is formulated as a national average. The World Health Report 2003 posed an important question: how does progress towards the MDGs affect equity? We investigated this by examining, across a range of settings, how inequality in the under 5 mortality of the poorest and least poor changes as progress is made towards the MDG.
Participants, methods, and results
Using published data1 we examined changes in inequalities in under 5 mortality within 22 low and lower middle income countries (11 in Africa, five in Latin America or the Caribbean, and six in Asia) each with two Demographic and Health Surveys …