Denominational Differences in Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Example of Ghana

Stephen Obeng Gyimah, Queen's University

Despite the valorization of good heath by all religious faiths, recent events in Ghana have highlighted distinctive denominational subcultures which could impact child survivorship. Using pooled children's data from the 1998 and 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, this study examines religious differences in child survival. Guided by the particularized theology and selectivity theses, piecewise constant hazard models with gamma-shared frailty are used to explore denominational differences in child mortality, and whether that could be explained through other characteristics. At the bivariate level, children whose mothers identify as Moslem and Traditional are found to have significantly higher risk of death compared with their counterparts whose mothers are Christians. In the multivariate models, the religious differences disappear after the mediating and confounding influence of socio-economic factors are controlled. The findings provide support for the selectivity hypothesis based on the notion that religious variations mainly reflect differential access to social and human capital.