Haiti 2012 DHS: Lower TFR, Higher Contraceptive Prevalence; Infant Mortality Rate Unchanged From Previous Survey

by Carl Haub, senior demographer

The preliminary results of one part of Haiti’s 2012 Demographic and Health Survey show a continuing but more-rapid decline in the total fertility rate (TFR, the average number of children per woman) since Haiti’s first DHS in 1994-1995.

Haiti’s TFR was 3.5 for the three-year period preceding the survey. For urban women, the TFR was 2.5; for rural women (who were 53 percent of the sample), the TFR was higher at 4.4. And in the earthquake resettlement camps, the TFR was 3.6. Sixty percent of women with two living children said that they did not wish to have any more children—a hint that the TFR may continue to decline.

Thirty-five percent of currently married or in-union women said that they were using some form of family planning, and 31 percent were using a modern method. Injection was the most frequently reported modern method at 19 percent; 5 percent were using the male condom; and 2 percent were using implants. Contraceptive use was up from the 2005-2006 DHS, when it was reported as 32 percent for all methods and 24 percent for modern methods. The distribution of use by method was very similar to that in 2012.

Infant and child mortality was essentially unchanged from the 2005-2006 DHS. The infant mortality rate in the five years before the 2012 DHS was 59 deaths to infants below age 1 per 1,000 live births; the child death rate (ages 1 to 4) was 31 deaths per 1,000 children in that age range.

Of children under age 5, 22 percent were stunted (height for age), only slightly less than in the 2005-2006 DHS; 11 percent were underweight (weight for age)—half of what was reported in the previous survey. Mothers followed the WHO recommendation of supplementing breastfeeding with solid/mushy food at the child’s 6 months of age quite well. At 6 to 8 months of age, only 3 percent of infants continued to breastfeed exclusively, and 83 percent received supplemental solid food.

Levels of prenatal care and delivery assistance from a skilled provider were very high. Of births in the five years before the survey, 90 percent of women had some prenatal care from a skilled provider and, again, urban and rural proportions were similar. But only 38 percent of births had had a skilled attendant at delivery, up from 26 in 2005-2006; the urban proportion was much higher than the rural, 60 percent compared to 25 percent. The proportion of births that took place in a health facility was low at 36 percent, but still showed improvement from 25 percent in 2005-2006.

In the 2005-2006 DHS, testing for HIV infection showed that 2.0 percent of men ages 15 to 49 were infected, compared to 2.3 percent of women. The 2012 DHS also tested for HIV and the results will be in the survey final report.

Reference

Enquête Mortalité, Morbidité et Utilisation des Services EMMUS-V, HAÏTI 2012, Rapport Préliminaire (Institut Haïtien de l’Enfance and MEASURE DHS, ICF International, September 2012)

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.