Gender Differences in Adult Mortality in Cameroon

Martin Bangha, University of Pennsylvania

The need to understand adult mortality is indisputable. In particular, an understanding of the extent and nature of geographic differentials in adult mortality is a valuable tool for health planners and useful for understanding demographic processes as well as making informed projections. This paper explores the magnitude of differentials in adult mortality in Cameroon based on parental survival data. The main focus is on whether the difference in survival chances by region and place of residence is in the same direction among men and women. The primary measures of adult mortality used in this analysis are the probability of dying between the ages 15 and 50, between ages 30 and 65 and the corresponding expected remaining years of life at age 5. Results show considerable inter-gender differences in mortality and intra-gender patterns by regions.