Household Headship and Infant Mortality in India: Evaluating the Determinants and Differentials.
BACKGROUND
There has been ample discussion on the levels and trends of infant mortality in India over time, but what remains less explored are, the differentials in infant mortality according to household headship. This paper examined the differences in the determinants of infant mortality between male-headed households (MHH) and female-headed households (FHH).


METHODS
The study used Cox proportional hazard model to examine the determinants of infant death, and Kaplan-Meier estimation technique to examine the survival pattern during infancy using data from Indian National Family Health Survey (2005-06). The analysis is restricted to women who had at least one live birth in the five years preceding the survey.


RESULTS
The study observed that household size and number of children below five are significant risk factors of infant mortality in MHH while length of previous birth interval is the only significant risk factor of infant death in FHH.
The results indicate that children from FHH have higher survival probability at each age than children from MHH irrespective of place of residence and sex of the child.
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai-400088, INDIA.
Ashish Kumar
AK
Gupta
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai-400088, INDIA.
M Kakoli
MK
Borkotoky
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai-400088, INDIA.
Amit
A
Kumar
Economic condition; Female-headed household; India; Infant mortality; Male-headed household