Cox’s Proportional Hazard Model Analysis of Child Survival in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study utilizes data extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS-2007) to investigate the predictors of child survival (age under 5 years) in Bangladesh. The cross-tabulation and Cox’s proportional hazard model techniques have been used to estimate the predictors of child survival in Bangladesh. Parents’ education, occupation of father, region, type of toilet facility, access to mass media, breastfeeding status, birth order, birth spacing with previous child, age of mother, age at first marriage and antenatal visit during pregnancy have been found significant effect on child survival by both cross-tabulation and Cox’s proportional hazard techniques. Finally, these findings suggest that an increase in parents’ education, breastfeeding to child, encourage child bearing age of mothers at 20-34 years, legal age at marriage and improve health care services, could in turn raise child survival and decrease child mortality in Bangladesh.