Mothers’ Literacy, Public Health Expenditure and under-five Mortality rate in Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State

Abstract

The study examines Mothers’ literacy, public health expenditure and under-five mortality rate in Funtua local government area of Katsina State. Two-stage clustered sampling method was used to select the study units, thus, one secondary and two primary health care centres within Funtua local government were selected. 100 questionnaires were administered to the selected adult female respondents. The study further used secondary time series data, specifically on local government expenditure on health, and under-five mortality rate in Funtua local government. The Pairwise correlation coefficient result indicated that there is a strong correlation between public health expenditure and under-five mortality rate. The study further established that female literacy is the most contributing factor in reducing the under-five mortality rate in Funtua local government. The study recommends that government at all levels should focus on increase budgetary allocation to the health sector. In addition, the government should also come up with policies that make education compulsory for all females.