Disparities and Inequality in Infant and Child Mortality among the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Abuja), Nigeria

Objective. The paper investigates the disparities in infant and child mortality in Nigeria over the last two decades. The major contribution of this study is to document the disparities in infant and child mortality in Nigeria at the state level. Methods. The paper employs both descriptive statistics, multivariate logistics regression, and multilevel logistics regression on data from IPUMS-Demographic and Health Surveys (IPUMS-DHS), 1990, 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2013 Version 5 datasets. The paper uses a multilevel logistic regression analysis on 216,049 observations nested within 1,766 clusters or neighborhoods in the 36 states and FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. Results. The paper finds that disparity in infant and child mortality is correlated to disparity in wealth, mother's educational attainment, and access to health care in Nigeria. Additionally, the study finds wide disparities in both infant and child mortality among the 36 states and FCT, Abuja, Nigeria. Conclusion and policy implication. The paper finds evidence of clustering effect at both community and individual levels suggesting little difference in infant and child mortality within clusters. This is very significant when we connect the instability in certain states of Nigeria to the health of children in those states.