Socioeconomic and Environment Conditions and Diarrheal Disease Among Children in Pakistan

Diarrheal disease poses mortality and morbidity risks to infants and young children. Based on losses in terms of disability-adjusted life years, the World Development Report (1993) estimates that diarrheal disease is the third most burdensome illness among children in the 1 to 5 years age bracket. Using 1990 data, Murray and Lopez (1994) estimated that about 3 million children die every year due to diarrheal disease. Severity of diarrheal illness and alternative interventions are necessary inputs into the government’s decision-making. However, there is currently much uncertainty about the most appropriate policies in the context of low-income environments such as Pakistan. The debate could be described in terms of efficacy of economic/behavioural or environment/infrastructure. In this study, we explore the socioeconomic and environment determinants of diarrheal disease for children in Paksitan. The diarrheal determinants equation was estimated by logistic techniques. Diarrheal illness jointly with defensive behaviour was estimated from the reduced form to fully capture the relationship between defensive actions and illness. Such an endeavour will provide decision makers and policy analysts information to formulate policy design for the necessary interventions and respective investment plans for the alleviation of dairrheal disease among children, depending upon the relative contribution of socioeconomic and enviromental factors. For the specific case of Pakistan, socioeconomic development strategies do not necessarily gaurantee lowering the incidence of diarrhea, particularly among children below five years of age, unless supported by environmental interventions.