The impact of housing quality on child survival in Ghana

Purpose This study aims to investigate how the quality of housing affects the survival of children under five years, using data from the 2021 Ghana Population and Housing Census. Design/methodology/approach The authors used the Weibull hazard model with gamma frailty to estimate the effect of housing quality on the survival probability of under-five children. Findings Thus, an under-five-year-old child living in a high-quality house is more likely to survive. This effect was found to be mainly mediated through the physical property of the house, the quality of the housing services, including toilet, waste and water supply and overcrowding. Research limitations/implications A major limitation of this study is the unavailability of rich information on children and their siblings in a household. This made it a big challenge to control for certain attributes of the child in the estimation. Again, it was impossible to match children to their actual mothers to control for mothers’ characteristics in the regression. Moreover, the data lacked variables to enable us to examine more pathways through which housing can affect the mortality rates of children. For instance, it was impossible to examine pathways such as stability and affordability. There were no variables on the prices and tenure of housing in the data, thus limiting authors’ exploration into these areas. Originality/value This study uses a rich set of structural dwelling characteristics and socio-economic factors from the 2021 Population and Housing Census to construct a housing quality index (HQI). The authors also explore the link between the constructed HQI and child survival using the information on children’s survival. Finally, this study examines the transmission pathways through which housing quality can potentially affect child survival in Ghana. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Ghana that uses census data to study an important policy issue on housing and child survival.