Article Text
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate whether areas with greater deprivation index have higher RR of infant mortality in Peninsular Malaysia. This investigation is essential for the regional planning and development by policy makers to reduce the inequality and health gap across region within the country. We begin this investigation by studying the census based data for year 1991 and 2000 for the 81 administrative districts. These data are then correlated with RR of infant mortality data for the period of 1990–2000. In this paper, Bayesian hierarchical method is used to rank area deprivation and RR of infant mortality for each administrative district. The results are then mapped through choropleth maps to see the association between the two risk factor and health indicator. The analysis showed that regional material deprivation is strongly associated with the RR of infant mortality.