Living standards and childhood mortality in the era of HIV/AIDS: Malawi

Henry V. Doctor, University of the Western Cape
Tukufu Zuberi, University of Pennsylvania

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has an enormous impact on adult mortality and child survival. The adult HIV seroprevalence in Malawi is about 15 percent, and there is already evidence of an increase in child mortality between 1992 and 2000 apparently due to HIV/AIDS. If HIV/AIDS is a probable candidate in the observed distortion, then the results are in the expected direction. In our analysis of DHS (1992 and 2000) and Census data (1987 and 1998) we find an enormous increase in child mortality during the period under investigation. We also find an unanticipated inverse relationship between the Living Standard Index and child mortality. Using two independent sources of data confirms our empirical findings. We provide several alternative explanations for these findings.