Rural-Urban Migration and Its Effects on Infant and Child Mortality in Ghana

This paper examines the socioeconomic characteristics of rural-urban migrants, child mortality and maternity child health care in Ghana. Data from the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey shows that infant mortality is lower among rural-urban migrants compared to rural non-migrants. Proportional hazards model estimates reveal that the survival chances of children of rural-urban migration persist after controlling for socioeconomic characteristics. However, these advantages disappear after demographic variables are included in the model in spite of the proximity and accessibility to medical facilities enjoyed by the migrants. This finding suggests that socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of migrants could be an important determinant of the survival of children of rural-urban migrants.Cet article examine les caract\ue9ristiques socio-\ue9conomiques des migrants ruraux-urbains, la mortalit\ue9 infantile et les soins de sant\ue9 infantile dans les maternit\ue9s au Ghana. Les donn\ue9es de l'Enqu\ueate d\ue9mographique et de Sant\ue9 du Ghana de 1988 ont montr\ue9 que la mortalit\ue9 infantile est plus faible parmi les migrants ruraux-urbains que parmi les non-migrants ruraux. Des estimations du mod\ue8le al\ue9atoire (Proportional hazards Model) ont montr\ue9 que les chances de survie des enfants issus de l'immigration rurale-urbaine augmentent si on prend en compte les caract\ue9ristiques socio-\ue9conomiques. Cependant, quand on fait intervenir les variables d\ue9mographiques dans ce mod\ue8le, ces avantages disparaissent malgr\ue9 la proximit\ue9 et l'accessibilit\ue9 des centres m\ue9dicaux. Ce r\ue9sultat prouve que les caract\ue9ristiques socio-\ue9conomiques et d\ue9mographiques des migrants constituent un d\ue9terminant important de la survie des enfants issus des migrants ruraux-urbains

Rising gasoline prices increase new motorcycle sales and fatalities

Background: We examined whether sales of new motorcycles was a mechanism to explain the relationship between motorcycle fatalities and gasoline prices. Methods: The data came from the Motorcycle Industry Council, Energy Information Administration and Fatality Analysis Reporting System for 1984–2009. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) regressions estimated the effect of inflation-adjusted gasoline price on motorcycle sales and logistic regressions estimated odds ratios (ORs) between new and old motorcycle fatalities when gasoline prices increase. Results: New motorcycle sales were positively correlated with gasoline prices (r = 0.78) and new motorcycle fatalities (r = 0.92). ARIMA analysis estimated that a US$1 increase in gasoline prices would result in 295,000 new motorcycle sales and, consequently, 233 new motorcycle fatalities. Compared to crashes on older motorcycle models, those on new motorcycles were more likely to be young riders, occur in the afternoon, in clear weather, with a large engine displacement, and without alcohol involvement. Riders on new motorcycles were more likely to be in fatal crashes relative to older motorcycles (OR 1.14, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.28) when gasoline prices increase. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that, in response to increasing gasoline prices, people tend to purchase new motorcycles, and this is accompanied with significantly increased crash risk. There are several policy mechanisms that can be used to lower the risk of motorcycle crash injuries through the mechanism of gas prices and motorcycle sales such as raising awareness of motorcycling risks, enhancing licensing and testing requirements, limiting motorcycle power-to-weight ratios for inexperienced riders, and developing mandatory training programs for new riders