The effect of distance to a health facility on childhood mortality in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa

Objective: Adequate access to health care services is an essential factor for the reduction of child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of distance, measured as mean walking duration to the closest health facility, on infant and child mortality, with respect to a set of further conditional factors from a previous publication. Methods: Longitudinal population data for the inhabitants of 42 villages in Nouna district (n≈67.000) were available from the database of the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in rural Burkina Faso. 24555 children born bet…