Kwabena A. Kyei

Determinants of Childhood Mortality in South Africa: Using Categorical Data Modeling

Abstract Childhood mortality is of great interest to social scientists and policy makers concerned about the quality of life in less developed countries. Thus, the importance of the study of childhood mortality cannot be exaggerated. The levels of infant and child mortality are the two sensitive and widely used indicators of socioeconomic development. The childhood mortality rate is a refined and sensitive index of the total cultural milieu of a community or a country. It reflects among other things, the state of public health and hygiene, the environmental sanitation, cultural mores about feeding and clothing, socio-economic development, and above all, the people’s attitude towards the dignity and value of human life itself. It is the simple statistical index which conveys the idea of whether environmental hazards are controlled effectively or not, in developing countries, especially in Africa. The childhood mortality situation in South Africa has been investigated in this research using South African Demographic and Health Survey II data. About ten socio-economic, demographic, environmental and healthrelated variables were analyzed using categorical data modeling (catmod) analysis. On the basis of the analysis, the study concludes that education of parents, marital status as well as the occupation of mother, the survival of the penultimate child, duration of breastfeeding, anti-natal check-ups and availability of toilets in the residence are the determinants of childhood mortality in South Africa.

Unemployment in Limpopo Province in South Africa: Searching for Factors

Abstract Employment is one of the most significant determinants of the welfare of any nation. Any significant changes in employment will subsequently affect the living standard of the household. South Africa has been a victim of high unemployment rates, with the official unemployment rate rising from 15.6 percent in 1995 to a peak of 30.3 percent in 2001 and minimally declining to 26.7 percent recording a differential of 11 percentage-points since 1995. Limpopo tends to have the highest proportion of rural dwellers in South Africa, hence it is expected that conditions in the province are inferior to the national average; implying higher unemployment rate. After the demise of apartheid (post-1994), the supply of labor increased dramatically. The nascent labor entrants characterized as unskilled increased dramatically; but as the economy grew, there was a drastic shift towards a more skill- based economy creating massive lay-offs. This study attempts to find the determinants of unemployment in the Limpopo province using annual census data of 2008 from Global Insight. Regression, Principal Component and Cluster analyses have been employed in this study. Five variables, ethnicity, age, education, gender and GDP were categorized into fifteen as independent variables. The results show that unemployment is concentrated at qualifications below the degree. That GDP, male, matriculation and youth have no significant relationship with unemployment. Rather the model reveals that females, postgraduate studies, middle aged, primary, incomplete secondary schooling and Asian (ethnicity) are predictors of unemployment in the Limpopo province in South Africa.

Comparison of the Historical Fertility Levels among the Nine Provinces of South Africa

Abstract Women education, industrialization, urbanization, contraceptive use, etc. have brought fertility levels in developing countries down. Black South African women who were discriminated against by apartheid system and with higher fertility now control much wealth and live in cities as other racial groups. This study uses data from Statistics South Africa on historical fertility to determine whether fertility levels among them have come down; and that there are neither fertility differentials among the provinces nor age groups of the women. Demographic and statistical methods of analysis have been used. Based on the data on children ever born by 2001, this study has found out that fertility level was lowest in the more urbanized and highly educated provinces of Western Cape and Gauteng, and highest in least educated and rural province of Limpopo. The mean number of children ever born is less than three in Western Cape and Gauteng, but five in Limpopo and three in each of the remaining six provinces.

Mor tality Level in the New South Africa: Looking for Causes

Abstract Mortality levels display the extent to which a country has advanced to take care of her citizens. Developed countries have lower mortality rates (high life expectancy) while developing countries have higher mortality rates (lower life expectancy). Knowledge about the level of mortality induces governments to take appropriate measures to improve all spheres of human life, economic, religious, social, and environmental. South Africa lacks quality data on mortality and fertility. This study adjusts the defective mortality data from the 10% sample of South African 2001 census and uses that to estimate mortality levels and factors influencing the level. Demographic and statistical analyses, including Brass growth balance method have been employed. The study produces the following results for the country: life expectancy of 52.5 years for females and 49.8 years for males, median age of 23 years, mean household size of 4 persons, annual population growth rate of 1.2 percent, literacy rate of 76 percent and mean household income of R3356 (about US

Alcohol Consumption in South African Universities: Prevalence and Factors at the University of Venda, Limpopo Province

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Road Fatalities in the Limpopo Province in South Africa

Abstract Substance abuse is prevalent in South African universities because students use drugs and alcohol for many reasons, including curing depression, imitating role models, getting relief from loneliness and/or self-doubt. There are no reliable data on substance use in South Africa except information from ad hoc cross-section research studies, occasional national surveys and information on police arrest seizures. This study reports on a survey conducted at the University of Venda on the use of alcohol on campus. From 209 students interviewed the results show that over 65% use alcohol of which 49% abuse it. Chi-square tests done showed that sex, age, religion, staying on campus, family monthly income and peer pressure were the factors affecting alcohol use, but the logistic regression identified only peer pressure and religion as the main factors. Staying on campus also affects alcohol use marginally.

Socio-demographic determinants of body mass index among school children in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract South Africa has high fatality rates on its roads. Between 2004 and 2008, the country had at least 50,000 fatal road accidents which caused over 70,000 deaths. The Limpopo Province contributed more than 5000 fatal road accidents with well over 6000 deaths during the same period.The most vulnerable road users to fatal road traffic accidents are the drivers, passengers, and pedestrians who collectively account for more than 5000 fatalities in the province between 2004 and 2008. The study, using data of 2008 from the Road Traffic Management Corporation, establishes that the leading contributory factors to fatal crashes and fatalities in Limpopo are human factors such as “speed too high for circumstances”, “pedestrian (jay walking)”, “overtaking when unlawful or unsafe” and “hit-and-run”; road and environmental factors such as “sharp bend”, “poor visibility (rain, mist, dust, smoke, dawn)”, “poor condition of road surface”, “animals (wild or stray)” and “road surface slippery/wet”; and vehicle factors such as “tyre (burst prior to crash)”, “brakes that are faulty” and “overloading”. The study reveals that the human factors accounted for 80.1 percent of fatal crashes and 84.9 percent of fatalities; road and environmental factors accounted for 11.5 percent of fatal crashes and 7.7 percent of fatalities, and vehicle factors accounted for 8.4 percent of fatal crashes and 7.4 percent of fatalities.

Market efficiency of African stock markets: A Meta-Analysis

Background African specific studies on the factors associated with the growth pattern of children are needed to guide evidence and develop effective population-based interventions that can be tailored to the unique African context. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the socio-economic correlates of body mass index (BMI) of primary and secondary school children in Ebonyi State, which is situated in south-eastern Nigeria. Methodology This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study that utilised clustering and stratified sampling techniques to select 1000 learners from primary and secondary schools located in Abakaliki local government area. Apart from a questionnaire, a Mettler weighing scale was also used for data collection. A generalised linear model was used to test the association between the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics and their BMI. Result BMI was positively related to female gender but negatively related to age and level of education. The mode of cooking, who the participants live with and how they get to school also predicted changes in BMI. Other variables like mother’s occupation and family’s mode of transport were also associated with BMI changes while father’s level of education, mother’s level of education, father’s occupation and the type of residence did not have any statistical relationship with BMI. Conclusion The present study shows that the BMI of school children is influenced by the socio-demographic characteristics surrounding them. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the socio-economic standing of families in this community.

Healthcare Practices by Mothers in the Limpopo Province of South Africa: Modeling the Case of the Mopani District

ABSTRACT:Investments on African stock markets have grown over the years. This is because stock markets in Africa have realized increase in market capitalization, membership, value and volume traded. Notwithstanding these increases, empirical studies on informational efficiency have had mixed conclusions about the markets. Are these mixed conclusions a result of variations in study characteristics? This study aims to find out if study characteristics have a probability of concluding efficiency of African stock markets. We quantitatively reviewed previous studies of informational efficiency of African stock markets by means of meta-analysis. We employed the mixed effect logistic meta-regression model to examine which of the study characteristics is significant in concluding a market to be efficient. The mixed effect logistic model was chosen because it contains both fixed effects and random effects. The model explains an outcome as a linear combination of fixed and conditional random effects. The fixed effects assume equal influence of explanatory variables on an outcome whilst the random effects assume variations amongst observations when analyzing relationships between an outcome and explanatory variables. Our results showed that only the indicator for publication bias is significant at the 5% level and that none of the study characteristics is significant in concluding efficiency of African stock markets. The indicator for publication bias being significant means our analysis suffers from publication bias. This implies that there has been a change in attitude in recent years towards studies on informational market efficiency whose results do not validate the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) unlike the earlier years when the EMH was formulated and acclaimed to be one of the best propositions in economics. Though, none of the study characteristics was statistically significant in efficiency conclusions, we observed that stock markets in Africa are about 4 times more likely to conclude that the markets are efficient if the study tested the weak-form rather than the semi-strong form of the EMH. The results have important implications in that, efficiency conclusions of African stock markets do not depend on any of these study characteristics. Therefore, traders cannot devise strategies to outperform the markets based on any of these study characteristics. We therefore conclude that informational efficiency conclusions of African stock markets are context-specific which occurs randomly and not based on any of the study characteristics.

Social Indicators in the Contemporary South Africa

Abstract Child morbidity is high in some parts of South Africa though there are a lot of interventions available to reduce childhood mortality. Some mothers lack knowledge about these interventions and this increases maternal and childhood mortality. This study seeks to determine the level of knowledge and practice mothers in Mopani have about child healthcare practices, and to model the determinants. A 3-stage sample survey, including stratified random sampling, was conducted covering all the municipalities in the district. About 1820 women in the childbearing age (that is, 13 to 49 years) were sampled and interviewed using structured questionnaires. Chi-square tests were carried out on categorical variables, and logistic and multiple regression analyses were performed for confirmations. From statistical analyses (catreg, logistic and multiple regressions) the study concludes that the following variables correlate with practices of child healthcare in the district: age, education, employment and the number of children a woman has. For the improvement of child health and survival, the study recommends primary healthcare education, immunization, oral rehydration therapy and prenatal medical check-ups.