The Relevance of Health Innovation and Socioeconomic Characteristics: Case study of Nigeria and other African Countries

This thesis employs econometric methods to examine the impact of various health innovations on socioeconomic characteristics prevalent in Nigeria and other African countries. The thesis comprises three case studies that consider different health innovations. It then examines whether the effects of such innovations on socioeconomic characteristics can serve as a policy guide to mitigate existing health inequalities. It utilizes data from various sources, including the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the World Development Indicators, EDGAR, UNESCO, and OECD. The main methodological contributions of this thesis include 1) the use of Pooled OLS, Random, and fixed effect models on a panel of 45 African countries to investigate the use of polluting fuels and technologies for domestic activities and their impact on ambient air pollution, as well as health indicators such as the child mortality rate and life expectancies. 2) The multilateral decomposition analysis of polio vaccination in Nigeria analyses how polio scares and sociodemographic Characteristics affected the uptake of polio vaccination while observing the trend over the years in Nigeria. 3) The use of the Probit model to investigate how the use of bednets is affected by socioeconomic characteristics and investigate if social interaction exists in the use of bednets in the community, with a particular focus on Nigeria. Results show that children under five are most affected by the use of polluting fuels and technology in households. In contrast, adults are affected by ambient air pollution particles in the atmosphere across the panel of 45 African countries. Also, social interaction does not exist in the use of bednets for children under 5 and pregnant women. In the polio vaccination case study, Analysis suggests that differences in Polio vaccine uptake are mainly a result of differences in sociodemographic characteristics such as education. Though a scare existed, it was localised and had no discernible effect on the uptake of the polio vaccine. The findings of this research align with the Sustainable Development Goal, which supports policies to enhance education and empowerment, reducing existing inequalities in the adoption of health innovations and addressing dimensions of deprivation. This also encourages investment in clean fuel technology, such as solar and electricity, and promotes a shift away from the use of carbon-emitting machinery.