Relationship between neonatal and infant mortality and mass media exposure in Sub-Saharan Africa

Background: Neonatal (birth to 28d) and infant (up to one year) mortality are significant problems in developing countries. Access to resources via mass media has the potential to improve neonatal and infant mortality by improving perinatal health information available to women. We hypothesized that exposure to mass media would increase over time and would be correlated with lower neonatal/infant mortality rates. Methods: Neonatal and infant mortality and mass media exposure data were obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys for 35 Sub-Saharan Africa countries. We determined Pearson correlation coefficients for neonatal and infant mortality and three aspects of mass media exposure (any exposure to mass media; radio listening; and television watching) over four time periods. Results: Mass media exposure increased between the first and fourth time periods. Neonatal mortality was negatively correlated (P<0.05) with any exposure to mass media and radio listening in all four time periods, but negatively correlated (P<0.05) with television viewing only in the middle two periods. Infant mortality was negatively correlated (P<0.05) with all three media exposure categories in all four time periods. Correlations were stronger between infant mortality and mass media exposure than between neonatal mortality and mass media exposure, except for radio listening during the second time period. Conclusions: There are statistically significant correlations between neonatal and infant mortality and some aspects of mass media exposure. Further study is needed to determine how perinatal health information is presented by the media and how mass media can be used to impact neonatal and infant health.