Socioeconomic predictors of prime age adult mortality among the rural poor during the early stages of the AIDS epidemic in Ethiopia.

Aim: To investigate the impact of prime age adult mortality (PAM) on child mortality and change annualized height-for-age Z-score (HAZ score) of children below eight years of age. The term "prime age" refers to adults between 15 to 54 years of age. Data: Four rounds of Ethiopia Rural Household Survey (ERHS) panel data set (1994-1997). Methods: This paper employed propensity score matching (PSM) with a difference in difference (DID) estimator to control for endogeneity of PAM to child survival and growth. Results: Bereavement (child living in a household with PAM) increased the probability of child mortality but did not significantly affect linear growth, conditional on survival. Bereavement increased the probability of death (but not growth) for both boys and girls, but girls fared worse than boys. Impact of bereavement on child survival but not linear growth was mediated through the relationship of the child to the household head. Becoming bereaved had a significant impact on the mortality probabilities of children only in the poorest tertile. Poorest surviving bereaved children grew half a standard deviation slower than their matched non-bereaved counterparts in the same economic group. The gender and position of the deceased did not affect the mortality and growth of bereaved children. Conclusion: Preventing PAM itself is an important policy strategy to improve children's health and longevity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]