The greater risk of fewer deaths: an ethnodemographic approach to child mortality in Hausaland.

Abstract

"A Nigerian case study illustrates how local understandings of health influence perceptions of infant survival in ways that may juxtapose indigenous interpretations to other 'objective' data. Evidence from two extended field investigations of a Hausa-Fulani village, set 12 years apart, suggests a decline in childhood mortality rates attendant upon the increasing availability of biomedicines. We note, however, that local perceptions are that mortality risks are now greater for those less than five years old. Our discussion focuses on the circumstances that inform this ethnodemography and its applicability to other population studies." (SUMMARY IN FRE)