Residential inequality and spatial patterns of infant mortality in Ethiopia: evidence from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys

Background Despite the remarkable decrease in infant mortality rate in most countries, the rate of decline is slow and it remains unacceptably high in Sub-Saharan Africa. The progress in infant mortality in Ethiopia is far below the rate needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal. Understanding the residential inequality and spatiotemporal clusters of infant mortality is essential to prioritize areas and guide public health interventions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the residential inequality and spatial patterns of infant mortality in Ethiopia. Methods A secondary data analysis was done based on the Ethiopian demographic and health surveys conducted in 2000, 2005, 2011, and 2016. A total weighted sample of 46,317 live births was included for the final analysis. The residential inequality was assessed by calculating the risk difference in infant mortality rates between urban and rural live births and presented using a forest plot. For the spatial patterns of infant mortality, the SaTScan version 9.6 and ArcGIS version 10.6 statistical software were used to identify the spatial patterns of infant mortality. Results The study revealed that the infant mortality rate significantly declined from 96.9 per 1000 live births [95% CI 93.6, 104.2] in 2000 to 48.0 per 1000 live births [95% CI 44.2, 52.2] in 2016 with an annual rate of reduction of 3.2%. The infant mortality rate has substantial residential inequality over time, which is concentrated in the rural area. The spatial distribution of infant mortality was significantly clustered at the national level in survey periods (global Moran’s I, 0.04–0.081, p value < 0.05). In 2000, the most likely clusters were found in east Afar and at the border areas of south Amhara and north Oromia regions (LLR = 7.61, p value < 0.05); in 2005, at the border areas of Southern Nations Nationalities and People and in the entire Amhara region (LLR = 10.78, p value< 0.05); in 2011, at Southern Nations Nationalities and People and Gambella regions (LLR = 6.63, p value< 0.05); and in 2016, at east Oromia and northeast Somali regions (LLR = 8.38, p value < 0.05). Conclusion In this study, though infant mortality has shown remarkable reduction, infant mortality remains a major health care concern and had significant spatial variation across regions. Besides, the study found that infant mortality was highly concentrated in rural areas. Identifying the hotspot areas of infant mortality would help in designing effective interventions to reduce the incidence of infant mortality in these areas. Therefore, the findings highlighted that public health interventions should target rural areas and identified hotspot areas to reduce the incidence of infant mortality.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURAL CONSUMPTION OF THE POPULATION OF THE CITY OF NIŠ

The paper is based on the results of an extensive empirical study of the cultural participation of the urban, suburban and rural population of the City of Niš, carried out in 2015, using a combined questionnaire on a sample of 800 respondents. The research results presented here refer only to the aspect of cultural consumption, with the aim of presenting the empirical findings and indicating whether, and to what extent, the place of residence of the participants, in correlation with the remaining socio-demographic features (age, gender, level of education, profession, satisfaction with one’s financial status), influence their cultural consumption, determining the frequency, forms and limitations of this consumption. The research approach is primarily founded in sociology, and is methodologically quantitatively focused on and developed within the theory of the class-cultural homology of Pierre Bourdieu. The research results indicate that young people who live in urban settlements, with a higher education background and favorable economic means, more often than others participate in cultural consumption, and are more frequently than others involved in acquiring additional artistic, intellectual and/or technical knowledge or skills in their leisure time. One half of all the respondents included in the study, mostly the middle-aged (40–54 years of age), point out the lack of money (an objective obstacle), while one-fourth of all the surveyed respondents, especially the oldest members of village societies (over the age of 55), point out the lack of interest (a subjective obstacle) as the main limitation to their own cultural consumption. The results mostly indicate an average frequency and very limited extent of cultural consumption of all the respondents included in the research to residential inequality and the social predispositions of cultural practices.

Black-White Disparities in Pediatric Asthma in Metropolitan Areas, 2015: Assessing the Roles of Residential Inequality and Segregation

Little research has explored how black-white residential inequality and residential segregation are associated and moderate black-white disparities in pediatric asthma. This paper contributes to this limited literature by using data for children in the 2015 American Housing Survey Metropolitan samples. Controlling for black-white inequalities in residential characteristics, segregation, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics, we find that the black-white disparity in pediatric asthma remains and slightly widens. We also find that the level of segregation, as measured by the index of dissimilarity and black isolation, moderates the association between children’s race and asthma. In areas with lower levels of dissimilarity and black isolation, whites’ predicted probabilities of asthma are greater than those of black children. However, when the index of dissimilarity is at least 60% and the black isolation is at least 50%, the racial disparity reverses, and black children’s predicted probabilities of asthma are significantly higher than those of whites.

Muslim/Non-Muslim Locational Attainment in Philadelphia: A New Fault Line in Residential Inequality?

This study examines Muslim/non-Muslim disparities in locational attainment. We pooled data from the 2004, 2006, and 2008 waves of the Public Health Management Corporation’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Survey. These data contain respondents’ religious identities and are geocoded at the census-tract level, allowing us to merge American Community Survey data and examine neighborhood-level outcomes to gauge respondents’ locational attainment. Net of controls, our multivariate analyses reveal that among blacks and nonblacks, Muslims live in neighborhoods that have significantly lower shares of whites and greater representations of blacks. Among blacks, Muslims are significantly less likely to reside in suburbs, relative to non-Muslims. The Muslim disadvantages for blacks and nonblacks in neighborhood poverty and neighborhood median income, however, become insignificant. Our results provide support for the tenets of the spatial assimilation and place stratification models and suggest that Muslim/non-Muslim disparities in locational attainment comprise a new fault line in residential stratification.

Change in Racial and Ethnic Residential Inequality in American Cities, 1970–2000

We complement and extend research on change in racial and ethnic residential segregation by estimating determinants of change from 1970 to 2000 in four measures of residential inequality—dissimilarity, entropy, isolation, and net difference—between American Whites, Blacks, Asians, and Latinos. Because we use a longer time horizon and multiple measures, our findings clearly demonstrate some convergence in residential location patterns across groups, indicating gradual spatial assimilation in U.S. metropolitan areas. Although Blacks continue to be more segregated than either Asians or Latinos, residential inequality has declined more rapidly for Blacks than for the other two groups, particularly in terms of neighborhood socioeconomic status. We also find that all three groups, but particularly Asians, have been converting income gains relative to Whites into improved neighborhood socioeconomic status more than into increased residential integration with Whites.