Course sample index
Section one: What do we mean by 'health'?
Section two: Patterns of disease - Looking at the evidence
Section three: Gender and disease
Section four: Disease and education
Section five: Poverty and disease
Section six: Improving health
About this sample
Examine the following table, which links under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and adult illiteracy (AIR). The adult illiteracy rate is the percentage of people over the age of 15 in a population who are illiterate.
| Region | Country | U5MR |
AIR (%) |
| Africa | Mozambique | 213 |
58 |
| Sierra Leone | 283 |
79* |
|
| Malawi | 229 |
42 |
|
| Uganda | 170 |
35 |
|
| Ghana | 96 |
31 |
|
| Egypt | 59 |
42 |
|
| America | Peru | 47 |
11 |
| Brazil | 40 |
16 |
|
| Jamaica | 24 |
14 |
|
| Cuba | 8 |
6* |
|
| Canada | 7 |
0 |
|
| Asia | Pakistan | 120 |
57 |
| Bangladesh | 96 |
60 |
|
| India | 83 |
45 |
|
| Indonesia | 52 |
15 |
|
| China | 36 |
17 |
|
| Sri Lanka | 18 |
9 |
|
| Japan | 5 |
0 |
|
| Europe | Poland | 11 |
0 |
| Greece | 8 |
4 |
|
| UK | 7 |
0 |
|
| Sweden | 5 |
0 |
Source: World Bank, 2000.
(a) Examine the countries that have zero adult illiteracy. Are the under-five mortality rates for these countries low or high compared with those for the rest of the table?
(b) Now examine the countries that have illiteracy rates that are more than 50%. Are the under-five mortality rates for these countries generally low or high compared with those for the rest of the table?
(c) From your answers to these questions, would you say there is a link between adult illiteracy and under-five mortality rate? If so, what is it?
After you have come up with your answers, compare them with mine on the next page.
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