Health and mortality in childhood in Morocco 1992-2011

Morocco has significantly improved health conditions of its children. Child mortality decreased constantly and Morocco is on the track to achieve the fourth MDG. However, improvement was not equally shared by groups from different milieu, regions and/or level of education and wealth.
Rural children are more likely to suffer from stunting, wasting and underweight compared to urban children. Moreover, the gaps persisted and sometimes increased during the last two decades. For instance, the national percentage of stunted children decreased from 22.6% in 1992 to 14.9 % in 2011 but the rural-urban ratio increased from 2.1 to 2.4.
Between 1992 and 2011, neonatal, postnatal, infant and under five mortality rates decreased but rural-urban ratios remained of the same order.
Neonatal, post-neonatal, infant and child mortality all show differences by gender, mother’s education level and wealth quintile.
Children born to an illiterate woman are at least twice as likely to die as their counterparts born to a woman with secondary or higher level of education. The ratio reaches 3 for post-neonatal mortality.
A child born in the poorest wealth quintile is three times more likely to die before his or her fifth birthday compared to a child born in the richest quintile.