709.2
The Death of Young Children: An Expression of Social Inequality
One of the most important social and demographic achievements of Mexico in recent decades has been the sharp drop in mortality, especially in the first years of life. However, the decline in early childhood mortality -the occurrence of which is strongly associated with poverty and marginalization, and whose causes can be largely avoided-, has occurred at different paces and intensities among the several regions and population sectors of the country, still prevailing today strong inequalities between the socioeconomically more and less favored population segments.
Historically the Mexican indigenous population has remained in a position of acute disadvantage and social precariousness compared to the rest of the country's inhabitants, residing very often in small, dispersed and isolated rural localities or in the marginalized areas of medium and large cities, generally in a situation of poverty, with great deficiencies in their living conditions and difficulties to access quality basic services, including those related to education and health care.
The objective of the paper is to analyze the inequality existing in the death of children under five years of age between indigenous and non-indigenous mothers, distinguishing in both cases between mothers living in rural and urban areas. To analyze the evolution of this inequality and the possible changes in the factors influencing the mortality of children, a cohort analysis of mothers is carried out and the incidence of different factors is explored through the use of multivariate statistical methods.
Data used come from the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID) carried on in 2014, which collected longitudinal and retrospective reproductive and maternal data for a sample of about 68 thousand indigenous and non-indigenous mothers aged 15 to 54.