← Back to Vol. 03 Issue No. 07 — Issue 07
Abstract
Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) administered in Angola, Chad, Ethiopia and Rwanda, this quantitative comparative study examines whether independent variables such as educational attainment, religion, wealth index, colonial history, and country significantly affected dependent variables of health-related decisions and outcomes such as termination of pregnancy and infant mortality. Literature will be utilized to discuss the effects of social and cultural forces as well as explore the educational opportunities, colonial history, and injustice associated with each nation. Each country’s developmental index and gender equality rankings will be analyzed. The DHS data for each nation will be coded and analyzed separately using SPSS, and subsequently calculated by ANOVAs and logistic regressions to identify statistical significance. Putnam’s Two-Level Game Theory and Social Capital Theory explains the complexities among the four nations. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the independent variables and weighted infant mortality and termination of pregnancy.