Health Status of Under-Five-Children and Tetanus Toxoid
Mbu Daniel Tambi
Abstract
Toxoid is one of the most important and cost-effective interventions that health systems can provide to safe children’s lives. Couple with others, toxoid is an effective measure of public health in helping children attain better lives without any disability. Thus, this study attempts to investigate the Child Health of Under-Five-Children and Tetanus Implications. Use is made of weighted Ordinary Least Square model. Empirical results are based on pooled data from the 2004 and 2011 Demographic and Health surveys collected by the government’s statistics office. Results show that maternal immunization during pregnancy is associated positively with birth weight, overall, in rural and urban areas, and among poor and non-poor households. Other variables that are significantly associated with birth weight in rural Cameroon are: mother’s education in years of schooling, mother’s age, father’s age, first twin birth, male child birth, non-poor, interaction of mother and father’s education and urban household residence. These results have implications for addressing child health concerns in the ongoing process of growth, employment and poverty reduction in terms of improving access to antenatal care and family planning in rural Cameroon.