[Ibadan Journal of Sociology, June, 2019, 9 ]
[© 2014-2019 Ibadan Journal of Sociology]73when they are well informed about them through the various media of
communication.
This paper, therefore, seeks to understand how the duo of maternal
education and urban residence, as proxy for socio-economic status (SES)
affects the survival chances of under-five children among disadvantaged
urban poor in Nigeria. This is given that Nigeria is one of the top six
countries in SSA with the burden of U5MR, and has an estimate of 109
deaths per 1000 live births as at the end of 2017 (UN IGME, 2018). Several
studies in Nigeria have also substantiated the fact that most child’s death in
the country are attributed to the presence of preventable diseases as well as
environmentally induced ill health among different social groups (Fayehun,
& Omololu, 2011; Olofin et al., 2013; Adewemimo et al., 2017). This paper
extracts urban poor sub-group from a national representative dataset to
assess how maternal level of education affects U5MR in Nigeria.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The social determinant of health framework (SDoHF) is utilised for this
paper. The framework is premised on the fact that the occurrence of diseases
and deaths in a population is as a result of inequality in the distribution of
the social and economic determinants of health in the society (WHO, 2012).
These determinants include income, ethnicity/race, education, employment,
housing, and the environment among others (Logie, 2012). The framework
is of the view that inequality experience in the distribution of social and
economic determinants of health produced inequities in health outcomes
among the people living in a given population (Graham, 2000; Logie, 2012).
It is also premised on the fact that the conditions in which people are “born,
grow, live, work and age are shaped by the distribution of income, power
and resources both at global, national and local levels, which determine
their health outcomes” (Magnan 2017; WHO, 2012).
According to Magnan (2017), there are five basic things about
social determinants of health which are stated as thus:
That medical care is insufficient for ensuring better health outcomes: It is
believed that although there are insufficient provisions of medical care in
the population of less developed societies, the proportion of those who are
affected by health-related behaviours including socioeconomic and
environmental factors are far higher than the insufficient provisions of
medical care in the population. This is because those with unfavourable
socioeconomic and environmental conditions are assumed to be of higher
risk of morbidity and deaths than those whose social and economic
conditions are favourable before seeking medical care from health facilities
especially among under-five children who are more vulnerable to the risk of
deaths in their environment than other categories of people.