Modern contraceptive use and intention to use: implication for under-five mortality in Ethiopia

OBJECTIVE: High under-five mortality has been identified as a major problem in many developing countries including Ethiopia. The main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of modern contraceptive use on under-five mortality in Ethiopia. METHODS: The study draws on data from the 2011 and 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys. The Kaplan-Meier survival function was used to demonstrate the survival probabilities of children while a multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the under-five mortality risks for various predictors. RESULTS: The results show consistently higher survival probabilities for children of mothers who use modern contraceptives for all survival periods. Significant predictors of under-five mortality include modern contraceptive use, tetanus vaccinations, mother's age, child's sex, parity, postnatal checkup, marital status, and source of drinking water. CONCLUSION: Modern contraceptive use has a notable implication for the chances of under-five survival in Ethiopia. This underscores the importance of modern contraceptive use in the pursuit of a substantial reduction in under-five mortality in the country.