RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND CHILD MORTALITY IN NIGERIA

To attain sustainable development goals, reduction in child mortality is necessary. However, a major challenge exists in the procurement of healthcare services by individuals which is determined to a large extent by their level of income. Adopting random effect and fixed effect methodology and using survey data from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2012) and General Household Survey (2012), this study examines the relationship between household income and child mortality. For the analysis, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate was modeled against household income and controlled for access to anti-natal care, access to safe water and sanitation, neonatal mortality rate, maternal education and household size in Nigeria. Results obtained show that household income has significant effect on neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria but household income has insignificant effect on infant and under-five mortality rates in Nigeria. Results also show that household size has significant effect on infant mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate in Nigeria. The study equally found that access to anti-natal care has significant effect on under-five mortality rate in Nigeria.