Logistic Regression Additive Model: Application to Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey Data

The well-being of a child reflects household, community and national involvement on family health. Currently, the global under-five child mortality rate is falling faster compared to any time in the past two decades. However, the progress remained insufficient to match the Millennium Development Goal 4 targets especially in the Sub-Saharan African region.

This study aims to visualize and identify factors associated with under-five child mortality in Tanzania, which is essential for formulating appropriate health program and policies.

The survey data used for this paper was taken from 2011-2012 Tanzania HIV/AIDS and Malaria Indictor Survey. The study utilizes statistical model that accommodate a response, which is dichotomous and account for non-linear relationship between binary response and independent variable. Generalized additive models was adopted for the analysis. The sample was selected using stratified, two-stage cluster sampling that gave a sample size of 10494 mothers. The model was fitted using proc gam in statistical analysis software version 9.3.

The results showed that human immunodeficiency virus status of the mother and breastfeeding were associated with under-five child mortality. Furthermore, the results also indicated that under-five child mortality had a quadratic pattern relationship with the number of children ever born, the number of children alive, the number of children five or under in a household and child birth order number.

Based on the study, our findings confirmed that under-five mortality is a serious problem in the Tanzania. Therefore, there is a need to intensify child health interventions to reduce the under-five mortality rate even further with the development of policies and programs to reduce under-five child mortality.