Asia-Pacific Population Journal - Volume 22, Issue 1, 2007

While the science of demography addresses the whole of the human population, substantive demographic research is most often focused on populations with common characteristics. For the last six decades the nation state has been the social unit that has dominated demographic research.

Since the beginning of the global pandemic, assessing knowledge and attitudes regarding AIDS has been an important subject of research and for good reasons. Given the unusual features of HIV/AIDS, there is considerable potential for misunderstanding important aspects of the disease that could affect both behaviours related to risk exposure, as well as reactions to those known or believed to have contracted HIV. Most research on knowledge and attitudes has focused on young or prime aged adults. Far less common are systematic assessments of knowledge and attitudes among older persons, especially for developing countries, presumably because they are thought to be at less risk of exposure. In fact, older persons are also at risk of infection even if less so than prime age adults and their numbers will grow as effective treatments increasingly allow those infected at earlier ages to survive to old ages. Still, infected persons aged over 50 constitute a relatively modest share of the total caseload, especially in the developing world (Knodel, Watkins and VanLandingham, 2003).

More than 500,000 maternal deaths occur worldwide every year, of which a quarter to a third of all deaths is the result of pregnancy-related complications (WHO, 2000). The regional variation in reproductive health outcome is also very wide as about 99 per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries. A woman living in Africa faces 200 times greater risk of dying from complications related to pregnancy than a woman living in an industrialized country (WHO, 2000).

Universal child immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases is recognized as one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing infant/child mortality in developing countries (Westly, 2003; Du Lou and Pison, 1996; Ministry of Health [Nepal], New Era, & ORC Macro, 2002; Department of Health Services/Nepal, 2000/2001). However, a considerable proportion of children living in many developing countries are deprived of receiving a complete course of immunization (Westly, 2003). In an effort to understand the key determinants of low prevalence of childhood immunization, previous studies have primarily focused on household structures (Gage, Sommerfelt and Piani, 1997; Bronte-Tinkew and Dejong, 2005); household economic resources (Bronte-Tinkew and Dejong, 2005); parental (particularly maternal) education (Desai and Alva, 1998; Streatfield, Singarimbun and Diamond, 1990); community contexts such as access to health services, community social structure and rural-urban residence (Pebley, Goldman and Rodriguez, 1996); access to health infrastructures and insurance (Gore and others, 1999), and political, institutional and organizational factors (Gauri and Khaleghian, 2002) as potential determinants. These studies have focused on Africa (e.g., Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago), Central America (e.g., Guatemala) and North America and do not reflect the relevance of sociocultural backgrounds and geographical disparities existing in Nepal.

Stretching over 147,570 square kilometres of land and with a population exceeding 131 million, Bangladesh is the world’s ninth most populous country. It is also one of the most densely populated (834 persons per sq. km.) (BBS, 2001). Over-population and poverty are pervasive in Bangladesh and causing hazards such as morbidity. Children aged under five years, whom are naturally innocent, vulnerable and dependent on their parents often suffer from viral and infectious diseases. The future of a nation is linked to the well-being of its children, which depends to a large extent on children’s health status. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence of morbidity among children aged under-5 (0-59 months) in Bangladesh and to determine the factors causing such morbidity.