Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2012-12
Assessing the Temporal and Regional Differences in the Relationships between Infant and Child Mortality and Urban Slum Prevalence in Less Developed Countries,1990–2005
Drawing from various bodies of social scientific literature and research, the authors assess the extent to which infant and child mortality rates in less developed countries are impacted by the percentage of domestic populations living in urban slum conditions. Results of two-way fixed effects panel model estimates of 80 less developed countries from 1990 to 2005 indicate that growth in the percentage of populations living in urban slum conditions positively affects both forms of mortality rate. The effects, moreover, are much more pronounced for African countries than for less developed countries in Latin America and Asia and moderately larger for the Asian nations than those in Latin America. Additional findings suggest that the magnitude of the effect of urban slum prevalence on infant and child mortality increased through time for the African countries, but not for the Latin American and Asian countries in the study.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgarwalS.TanejaS. (2005) All slums are not equal: child health conditions among the urban poor, Indian Pediatrics, 42, pp. 233–244.
AwasthiS.AgarwalS. (2003) Determinants of childhood mortality and morbidity in urban slums in India, Indian Pediatrics, 40, pp. 1145–1161.
4.
BartlettS. (2003) Water, sanitation, and urban children: the need to go beyond ‘improved’ provision, Environment and Urbanization, 15(2), pp. 57–70.
5.
BaumC. (2006) An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata Press.
6.
BerkmanL. F.KawachiI. (2000) A historical framework for social epidemiology, in: BerkmanL. F.KawachiI. (Eds) Social Epidemiology, pp. 3–12. New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
BradyD.KayaY.BeckfieldJ. (2007) Reassessing the effect of economic growth on well-being in less-developed countries, 1980–2003, Studies in Comparative International Development, 42, pp. 1–35.
8.
CasselJ. (1964) Social science theory as a source of hypotheses in epidemiological research, American Journal of Public Health, 54(9), pp. 1482–1488.
9.
ChungH.MuntanerC. (2006) Political and welfare state determinants of infant and child health indicators: an analysis of wealthy countries, Social Science & Medicine, 63, pp. 829–842.
10.
CohenB. (2006) Urbanization in developing countries: current trends, future projections, and key challenges for sustainability, Technology in Society, 28, pp. 63–80.
11.
CwikelJ. (2006) Social Epidemiology: Strategies for Public Health Activism. New York: Columbia University Press.
12.
DavisM. (2006) Planet of Slums. New York: Verso.
13.
DunlapR. E.CattonW. R.Jr (1979) Environmental sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, 5, pp. 243–273.
14.
DunlapR. E.MichelsonW.StalkerG. (2001) Environmental sociology: an introduction, in: DunlapR. E.MichelsonW. (Eds ) Handbook of Environmental Sociology, pp. 1–32. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
15.
EhiriJ. E.ProwseJ. M. (1999) Child health promotion in developing countries: the case for integration of environmental and social interventions?, Health Policy and Planning, 14(1), pp. 1–10.
16.
FarmerP. (1999) Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
17.
FarmerP.NizeyeB.StulacS.KeshavjeeS. (2006) Structural violence and clinical medicine, PLoS Medicine, 3(10), pp. 1686–1691.
18.
FernandezA.MondkarJ.MathaiS. (2003) Urban slum-specific issues in neonatal survival, Indian Pediatrics, 40, pp. 1161–1166.
19.
FitzpatrickK.LaGoryM. (2000) Unhealthy Places: The Ecology of Risk in the Urban Landscape. New York: Routledge.
20.
FotsoJ.-C.EzehA. C.MadiseN. J.CieraJ. (2007) Progress towards the child mortality millennium development goal in urban sub-Saharan Africa: the dynamics of population growth, immunization, and access to clean water, BMC Public Health, 7, p. 218.
21.
FreyR. S.FieldC. (2000) The determinants of infant mortality in less developed countries: a cross national test of five theories, Social Indicators Research, 52, pp. 215–234.
22.
GhoshS.ShahD. (2004) Nutritional problems in urban slum children, Indian Pediatrics, 41, pp. 682–696.
23.
GilpinR. (2001) Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24.
GulatiJ. K.JaswalS. (1998) Maternal and child health care in slums of Ludhiana City, Indian Journal of Maternal and Child Health, 9(1), pp. 48–51.
25.
HalabyC. (2004) Panel models in sociological research: theory into practice, Annual Review of Sociology, 30, pp. 507–544.
26.
HertzE.HerbertJ. R.LandonJ. (1994) Social and environmental factors and life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality rates: results of a cross-national comparison, Social Science and Medicine39, pp. 105–114.
27.
HeuvelineP. (2001) Demographic pressure, economic development, and social engineering: an assessment of fertility declines in the second half of the twentieth century, Population Research Policy Review, 20, pp. 365–396.
28.
HillK.PebleyA. R. (1989) Child mortality in the developing world, Population and Development Review, 15(4), pp. 657–687.
29.
HoqueA.SelwynB. J. (1996) Birth practice patterns in urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Women & Health, 24(1), pp. 41–58.
30.
JorgensonA. K. (2009) Foreign direct investment and the environment, the mitigating influence of institutional and civil society factors, and relationships between industrial pollution and human health: a panel study of less-developed countries, Organization & Environment, 22, pp. 135–157.
31.
JorgensonA. K.ClarkB. (2009) The economy, military, and ecologically unequal relationships in comparative perspective: a panel study of the ecological footprints of nations, 1975–2000, Social Problems, 56, pp. 621–646.
32.
JorgensonA. K.ClarkB. (2010) Assessing the temporal stability of the population/environment relationship: a cross-national panel study of carbon dioxide emissions, 1960–2005, Population & Environment, 32, pp. 27–41.
33.
JorgensonA. K.RiceJ. (2010) Urban slum growth and human health: a panel study of infant and child mortality in less-developed countries, 1990–2005, Journal of Poverty, 14, pp. 382–402.
34.
JorgensonA. K.RiceJ.ClarkB. (2010) Cities, slums, and energy consumption in less-developed countries, 1990–2005, Organization & Environment, 23, pp. 189–204.
35.
KilmartinL. (2001) Designing the built environment, in: DunlapR. E.MichelsonW. (Eds) Handbook of Environmental Sociology, pp. 167–191. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
36.
KriegerN. (2000) Epidemiology and social sciences: towards a critical reengagement in the 21st century, Epidemiologic Reviews, 22(1), pp. 155–163.
37.
KriegerN. (2001a) Theories for social epidemiology in the 21st century: an ecosocial perspective, International Journal of Epidemiology, 30(4), pp. 668–677.
38.
KriegerN. (2001b) Historical roots of social epidemiology: socioeconomic gradients in health and contextual analysis, International Journal of Epidemiology, 30, pp. 899–900.
39.
KriegerN. (2001c) A glossary for social epidemiology, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 55(10), pp. 693–700.
40.
KriegerN.ZierlerS. (1996) What explains the public’s health: a call for epidemiologic theory, Epidemiology, 7(1), pp. 107–109.
41.
LinkB. G.PhelanJ. C. (1995) Social conditions as fundamental causes of disease, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Extra Issue, pp. 80–94.
42.
LinkB. G.PhelanJ. C. (1996) Understanding sociodemographic differences in health: the role of fundamental social causes, American Journal of Public Health, 86(4), pp. 471–473.
43.
MacintyreS.EllawayA. (2000) Ecological approaches: rediscovering the role of the physical and social environment, in: BerkmanL. F.KawachiI. (Eds) Social Epidemiology, pp. 332–348. New York: Oxford University Press.
44.
McKinlayJ. B. (1981) A case for refocusing upstream: the political economy of illness, in: ConradP.KernR. (Eds) The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives, pp. 613–663. New York: St Martin’s Press.
45.
MogfordE. (2004) Structural determinants of infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: a cross-national study of ecnomic and social influences from 1970–1977, Biodemography and Social Biology, 51, pp. 94–120.
46.
MooreS.TeixeiraA.ShiellA. (2006) The health of nations in a global context: trade, global stratification, and infant mortality rates, Social Science & Medicine, 63, pp. 165–178.
47.
OakesJ. M.KaufmanJ. S. (2006) Introduction: advancing methods in social epidemiology, in: OakesJ. M.KaufmanJ. S. (Eds) Methods in Social Epidemiology: Research Design and Methods, pp. 3–20. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
48.
RahiM.TanejaD. K.MisraA.MathurN. B.. (2006) Newborn care practices in an urban slum of Delhi, Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, 60(12), pp. 506–513.
49.
RamR. (2006) Further examination of the cross-country association between income inequality and population health, Social Science & Medicine, 62, pp. 779–791.
50.
RiceJ. (2008) Material consumption and social well-being within the periphery of the world economy: an ecological analysis of maternal mortality, Social Science Research, 37, pp. 1292–1309.
51.
RiceJ.Steinkopf-RiceJ. (2009) The concentration of disadvantage and the rise of an urban penalty: urban slum prevalence and the social production of health inequalities in the developing countries, International Journal of Health Services, 39(4), pp. 749–770.
52.
RobinsonW. (2004) A Theory of Global Capitalism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
53.
SatterthwaiteD. (1993) The impact on health of urban environments, Environment and Urbanization, 5(2), pp. 87–111.
54.
SclarE.GarauP.CaroliniG. (2005) The 21st century health challenge of slums and cities, The Lancet, 365, 5March, pp. 901–903.
55.
ShandraC.ShandraJ.LondonB. (2011) World Bank structural adjustment, water, and sanitation: a cross-national analysis of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, Organization & Environment, 24, pp. 107–129.
56.
ShandraJ.NoblesJ.LondonB.WilliamsonJ. (2003) Dependency, democracy, and infant mortality: a cross-national analysis of developing nations, Social Science and Medicine, 59, pp. 321–333.
57.
ShandraJ.ShandraC.LondonB. (2010) Debt, structural adjustment, and non-governmental organizations: a cross-national analysis of maternal mortality, Journal of World-Systems Research, 16, pp. 217–245.
58.
ShenC.WilliamsonJ. (1999) Maternal mortality, women’s status, and economic ependency in less developed countries: a cross-national analysis, Social Science and Medicine, 49, pp. 197–214.
59.
ShenC.WilliamsonJ. (2001) Accounting for cross-national differences in infant mortality decline (1965–1991) among less developed countries: effects of women’s status, economic dependency, and state strength, Social Indicators Research, 53, pp. 257–288.
60.
TurshenM. (1977) The political ecology of disease, Review of Radical Political Economics, 9(1), pp. 45–60.
61.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2006) Human Development Report. New York: Oxford University Press.
62.
UN-HABITAT (2003a) Slums of the World: The Face of Urban Poverty in the New Millennium?London: Earthscan (http://www.unhabitat.org).
63.
UN-HABITAT (2003b) The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements 2003. London: Earthscan (http://www.unhabitat.org).
64.
UN-HABITAT (2006) State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7. London: Earthscan (http://www.unhabitat.org).
65.
UN-HABITAT (2007) The urban penalty: the poor die young (http://www.unhabitat.org; accessed May 2007).
VaidA.MammenA.PrimroseB.KangG. (2007) Infant mortality in an urban slum, Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 74, pp. 449–453.
68.
VlahovD.FreudenbergN.ProiettiF.OmpadD.. (2007) Urban as a determinant of health, Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 84(1), pp. i16–i26.
69.
WagstaffA.BustreoF.BryceJ.ClaesonM. (2004) Child health: reaching the poor, American Journal of Public Health, 94(5), pp. 726–736.
70.
WaitzkinH. (1981) The social origins of illness: a neglected history, International Journal of Health Services, 11(1), pp. 77–103.
71.
World Bank (2007) World development indicators (CD-ROM version). World Bank, Washington, DC.
72.
YankauerA.Jr (1950) The relationship of fetal and infant mortality to residential segregation: an inquiry into social epidemiology, American Sociological Review, 15, pp. 644–648.
