The impact of internal displacement on child mortality in post-earthquake Haiti: a difference-in-differences analysis

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Timothy J. Halliday¹  Victoria Y. Fan²  Bradley Chen³ 

[1] Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, 533 Saunders Hall, 96822, Honolulu, HI, USA;IZA, Bonn, Germany;University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, Honolulu, HI, USA;Department of Public Health Sciences & Epidemiology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1960 East–west Road, Biomed D204, Honolulu, HI, USA;François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, USA;Center for Global Development, Washington, D.C., USA;Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, 155 Linong Street, Sec. 2, 112, Taipei, Taiwan;

关键词: Infant mortality;    Child mortality;    Internally displaced people;    Earthquake;    Haiti;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-016-0403-z

 received in 2016-04-06, accepted in 2016-07-11,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe Haiti earthquake in 2010 resulted in 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDP), yet little is known about the impact of displacement on health. In this study, we estimate the impact of displacement on infant and child mortality and key health-behavior mechanisms.MethodsWe employ a difference-in-differences (DID) design with coarsened exact matching (CEM) to ensure comparability among groups with different displacement status using the 2012 Haiti Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). The participants are 21,417 births reported by a nationally representative sample of 14,287 women aged 15–49. The main independent variables are household displacement status which includes households living in camps, IDP households (not in camps), and households not displaced. The main outcomes are infant and child mortality; health status (height-for-age, anemia); uptake of public health interventions (bed net use, spraying against mosquitoes, and vaccinations); and other conditions (hunger; cholera).ResultsBirths from the camp households have higher infant mortality (OR = 2.34, 95 % CI 1.15 to 4.75) and child mortality (OR = 2.34, 95 % CI 1.10 to 5.00) than those in non-camp IDP households following the earthquake. These odds are higher despite better access to food, water, bed net use, mosquito spraying, and vaccines among camp households.ConclusionsIDP populations are heterogeneous and households that are displaced outside of camps may be self-selected or self-insured. Meanwhile, even households not displaced by a disaster may face challenges in access to basic necessities and health services. Efforts are needed to identify vulnerable populations to provide targeted assistance in post-disaster relief.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016