Determinants of child health and contraceptive use in Vietnam

The objective of Le Thong Pham’s thesis is to explore the determinants of child health and contraceptive use in the context of the transitional period in Vietnam. The period has been characterized by profound changes in the country's political, socio-economic, and health care conditions.

Le Thong Pham applies various econometric models to explore the broad and long-term changes in child health and contraceptive use pattern and the impact of the Population and Family Health Project (PFHP), using the data from the 1997 and 2002 Vietnam Demographic and Health Survey. While these econometric tools are now well-established, this study is the first to apply them to this particular Vietnamese case.

Le Thong Pham finds strong improvements in overall mortality rates during the last four decades. However, for child morbidity and contraceptive use, no improvement is found over time. Maternal education and household’s income have strong effect on all health issues. Therefore, improving women’s education and household’s income are key variables of interest. In child mortality analysis, fertility-related behaviors are found to be key predictors while, in the child morbidity study, biomedical factors seem to have strong effect. The estimation results also show a large regional difference. Most of the health indicators are worse for rural people. Unfortunately, the treatment effect of the PFHP is found insignificant in terms of reducing child mortality and morbidity rate, and increasing contraceptive prevalent rate.

Curriculum vitae
Le Thong Pham (Vietnam, 1974) studied economics at the University of Ho Chi Minh City. He conducted his research at the Faculty of Economics and Business an will be awarded his PhD on 19 November 2009 (1.15pm). His thesis supervisors are prof.dr. P. Kooreman and prof.dr. R. Koning. The Thesis title is: Determinants of child health and contraceptive use in Vietnam: a microeconometric analysis. Le Thong Pham works at Cantho University in Vietnam.