Gender as a determinant of health in under-five children in Ethiopia; a secondary data analysis from EDHS 2016

Under-five mortality is one of the key sustainable development goal targets. Despite the great strides made globally, Under-five mortality remains high in many developing countries like Ethiopia. Child health status is determined by a myriad of factors at the individual, family and community level, furthermore, a child's gender has been shown to affect the probability of infant and child mortality.

A secondary data analysis was conducted using Ethiopian demographic health survey 2016 to assess association between gender and under-five child health. A representative sample of 18,008 households was selected. After data cleaning and entry, analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Uni-variable and multivariable logistic regression model were employed to determine the association between under-five child health and gender. In the final multivariable logistic regression model, the association of gender with childhood mortality was declared statistically significant at P value < 0.05.

A total of 2,075 under five children from EDHS 2016 were included in the analysis. Majority (92%) were rural dwellers. More male children were found to be underweight (53% Vs 47%) and wasted (56.2% Vs 43.8%) compared to female children. A higher proportions of females were vaccinated (52.2%) compared to 47.8% in males. Health seeking behavior for fever (54.4%) and diarrheal diseases (51.6%) were also found to be higher for females. However, in a multivariable logistic regression model, there was no statistically significant association found between gender and under-five child children health measures.

Although it was not statistically significant association, females were found to have a better health and nutritional outcomes compared to boys in our study.