In Nigeria, approximately 109 million and 66 million people lack access to sanitation facilities and water, respectively. This study aimed to determine whether children under 5 years old without access to improved water and sanitation facilities are at higher risk of death in Nigeria. Pooled 2003, 2008 and 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey data were used to examine the impact of water and sanitation on deaths of children aged 0–28 days, 1–11 months, and 12–59 months using Cox regression analysis. Survival information of 63,844 children was obtained, which included 6285 deaths of children under 5 years old; there were 2254 cases of neonatal mortality (0–28 days), 1859 cases of post-neonatal mortality (1–11 months) and 2,172 cases of child mortality (1–4 years old). Over a 10-year period, the odds of neonatal, post-neonatal and child deaths significantly reduced by 31%, 41% and 47% respectively. The risk of mortality from both unimproved water and sanitation was significantly higher by 38% (Adjusted hazard ratios (HR) = 1.38, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14–1.66) for post-neonatal mortality and 24% (HR = 1.24, 95% CI: 1.04–1.48) for child mortality. The risk of neonatal mortality increased by 6% (HR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.85–1.23) but showed no significant effect. The Nigerian government needs to invest more in water and sanitation to reduce preventable child deaths.

Nigeria continues to have one of the highest rates of neonatal deaths in Africa. This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with neonatal death in Nigeria using the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Neonatal deaths of all singleton live-born infants between 2003 and 2008 were extracted from the 2008 NDHS. The 2008 NDHS was a multi-stage cluster sample survey of 36,298 households. Of these households, survival information of 27,147 singleton live-borns was obtained, including 996 cases of neonatal mortality. The risk of death was adjusted for confounders relating to individual, household, and community level factors using Cox regression. Multivariable analyses indicated that a higher birth order of newborns with a short birth interval ≤ 2 years (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.19, confidence interval [CI]: 1.68–2.84) and newborns with a higher birth order with a longer birth interval > 2 years (HR = 1.36, CI: 1.05–1.78) were significantly associated with neonatal mortality. Other significant factors that affected neonatal deaths included neonates born to mothers younger than 20 years (HR = 4.07, CI: 2.83–5.86), neonates born to mothers residing in rural areas compared with urban residents (HR = 1.26, CI: 1.03–1.55), male neonates (HR = 1.30, CI: 1.12–1.53), mothers who perceived their neonate’s body size to be smaller than the average size (HR = 2.10, CI: 1.77–2.50), and mothers who delivered their neonates by caesarean section (HR = 2.80, CI: 1.84–4.25). Our study suggests that the Nigerian government needs to invest more in the healthcare system to ensure quality care for women and newborns. Community-based intervention is also required and should focus on child spacing, childbearing at a younger age, and poverty eradication programs, particularly in rural areas, to reduce avoidable neonatal deaths in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, suboptimal breastfeeding practices are contributing to the burden of childhood diseases and mortality. This study identified the determinants of key suboptimal breastfeeding practices among children 0–23 months in Nigeria. Data on 10,225 children under-24 months were obtained from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). Socio-economic, health service and individual factors associated with key breastfeeding indicators (early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, predominant breastfeeding and bottle feeding) were investigated using multiple logistic regression analyses. Among infants 0–5 months of age, 14% [95% confidence Interval (CI): 13%, 15%] were exclusively breastfed and 48% [95% CI: 46, 50%] were predominantly breastfed. Among children aged 0–23 months, 38% [95% CI 36, 39%] were breastfed within the first hour of birth, and 15% [95% CI: 14, 17%] were bottle-fed. Early initiation of breastfeeding was associated with higher maternal education, frequent antenatal care (ANC) visits and birth interval but deliveries at a health facility with caesarean section was associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding. Educated mothers, older mothers and mothers from wealthier households exclusively breastfeed their babies. The risk for bottle feeding was higher among educated mothers and fathers, and women from wealthier households including mothers who made frequent ANC visits. Socio-economic and health service factors were associated with suboptimal breastfeeding practices in Nigeria. To improve the current breastfeeding practices, breastfeeding initiatives should target all mothers – particularly low SES mothers – including, national and sub-national health policies that ensure improved access to maternal health services, and improvements to baby friendly hospital and community initiatives for mothers.

In Nigeria, approximately 69% of households use solid fuels as their primary source of domestic energy for cooking. These fuels produce high levels of indoor air pollution. This study aimed to determine whether Nigerian children residing in households using solid fuels at 1 to < 60 months dying due to use of solid fuels. The health effects of household use of solid fuels are a major public health threat that requires increased research and policy development efforts. Research should focus on populations in rural areas and low socioeconomic households so that child survival in Nigeria can be improved.

In the design of public health policy, a broader understanding of risk factors for disease across the life course, and an increasing awareness of the social determinants of health, has led to the development of more comprehensive, cross-sectoral strategies to tackle complex problems. However, comprehensive strategies may not represent the most efficient or effective approach to reducing disease burden at the population level. Rather, they may act to spread finite resources less intensively over a greater number of programs and initiatives, diluting the potential impact of the investment. While analytic tools are available that use research evidence to help identify and prioritise disease risk factors for public health action, they are inadequate to support more targeted and effective policy responses for complex public health problems. This paper discusses the limitations of analytic tools that are commonly used to support evidence-informed policy decisions for complex problems. It proposes an alternative policy analysis tool which can integrate diverse evidence sources and provide a platform for virtual testing of policy alternatives in order to design solutions that are efficient, effective, and equitable. The case of suicide prevention in Australia is presented to demonstrate the limitations of current tools to adequately inform prevention policy and discusses the utility of the new policy analysis tool. In contrast to popular belief, a systems approach takes a step beyond comprehensive thinking and seeks to identify where best to target public health action and resources for optimal impact. It is concerned primarily with what can be reasonably left out of strategies for prevention and can be used to explore where disinvestment may occur without adversely affecting population health (or equity). Simulation modelling used for policy analysis offers promise in being able to better operationalise research evidence to support decision making for complex problems, improve targeting of public health policy, and offers a foundation for strengthening relationships between policy makers, stakeholders, and researchers.

Suicide in young adults remains an important public health issue in Australia. The attributable risks associated with broader socioeconomic factors, compared to more proximal psychiatric disorders, have not been considered previously in individual-level studies of young adults. This study compared the relative contributions of psychiatric disorder and socio-economic disadvantage associated with suicide in terms of relative and attributable risk in young adults. A population-based case–control study of young adults (18–34 years) compared cases of suicide (n = 84) with randomly selected controls (n = 250) from population catchments in New South Wales (Australia), with exposure information collected from key informant interviews (for both cases and controls). The relative and attributable risk of suicide associated with ICD-10 defined substance use, affective, and anxiety disorder was compared with educational achievement and household income, adjusting for key confounders. Prevalence of exposures from the control group was used to estimate population attributable fractions (PAF). Strong associations were evident between mental disorders and suicide for both males and females (ORs 3.1 to 18.7). The strongest association was for anxiety disorders (both males and females), followed by affective disorders and substance use disorders. Associations for socio-economic status were smaller in magnitude than for mental disorders for both males and females (ORs 1.1 to 4.8 for lower compared to high SES groups). The combined PAF% for all mental disorders (48% for males and 52% for females) was similar in magnitude to socio-economic status (46% for males and 58% for females). Socio-economic status had a similar magnitude of population attributable risk for suicide as mental disorders. Public health interventions to reduce suicide should incorporate socio-economic disadvantage in addition to mental illness as a potential target for intervention.