Analysis of childhood morbidity in Tanzania

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Date
2016
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
Childhood morbidity and mortality, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa including Tanzania. Demographic and Health surveys have generated comparable data on health, demographic and socio-economic status measured at different points in time. These surveys provide important data source for examining trends and patterns of childhood morbidity in countries were routine data are not reliable. This study aimed at analyzing childhood morbidity by identifying clusters with high risks of illnesses, examining fac tors associated with childhood morbidity and assessing differences of factors associated with childhood co-morbidity by using data from 1999 TRCHS, 2004-05 and 2010 TDHS. Several statistically significant clusters with high risks of childhood diarrhoea, fever and cough were identified. The identified clusters revealed decrease of sample points with time. Childhood diarrhoea slightly increased over time from 1999 to 2010. On the other hand fever and cough decreased over time in the same period. Age of a child, breastfeeding practice and cluster status were common risk factors associated with childhood diarrhoea, fever and cough. Other factors which were associated with at least one illness for the two surveys were residence, sex of a child and educational status of mother. Indeed using multivariate logistic regression model, differences of associations between risk factors and multiple outcomes were assessed. The need to conduct further studies to investigate households and community factors involved in variations of childhood illnesses are recommended.Diarrhoea, Fever and Acute Respiratory Infectious (ARI) are the leading causes of
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Keywords
childhood, morbidity
Citation
Aaron, W(2016) Analysis of childhood morbidity in Tanzania, master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam.