Assessment of Under Five Child Mortality in Tanzania Mainland Based on Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

Deaths of children younger than 5 years has been a global problem for long time. This study is focused on evaluating diseases that caused under five child mortality in Tanzania in 2013. Diseases that causes child mortality were collected from 25 regions and analysed for 42 disease variables. The data obtained were standardized and subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) to define the diseases responsible for the variability in child mortality. PCA produced seven significant main components that explain 73:40% of total variance of the original data set. The results reveal that Thyroid Diseases, Snake and Insect Bites, Vitamin A Deficiency /Xerophthalmia, Eye Infections, Schistosomiasis (SS), Intestinal Worms, Ear Infections, Haematological Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Ill Defined Symptoms no Diagnosis, Poisoning, Anaemia, HIV/AIDS, Burns, Rheumatic Fever, Bronchial Asthma, Peri-natal conditions and Urinary tract infection are most significant diseases in assessing under five child mortality in Tanzania mainland. This study suggest that PCA technique is useful tool for identification of important diseases that causes death of children less than five years.