Cultural Beliefs and Infant Mortality in Nigeria

Table 2

Factor loadings and mean scores on cultural beliefs of infant mortality questionnaire items (N = 2400).

Cultural belief	Ritual factor	Spirits factor	Mean score
Mother walking at night during pregnancy	0.77		2.23
Wickedness of the birth attendant	0.72		2.38
Mothers of twins refusing to dance in the market place after child’s birth	0.63		1.98
Mothers breaking the taboo that forbids eating of salt after child’s birth	0.60		1.98
Refusal of mothers to carry out some rituals after child’s birth	0.57		2.04
Mothers walking in the hot afternoon without tying a stone	0.56		2.04
Infant spitting or urinating in the fire	0.55		1.98
Anger of the ancestors	0.53		2.11
Mothers refusal to dedicate the newborn to the gods of the land	0.49		2.02
Marital unfaithfulness of the woman to her husband	0.46		2.09
Attacks in the dream	0.46		2.49
Witches’ attack		0.81	2.03
Charms’ attack from the enemy		0.78	1.99
“Abiku” or “Ogbanje” spirit		0.73	1.85
Attacks of ancestral spirits		0.68	1.86
Jealous relatives		0.66	1.89
Evil eyes of the co-wives		0.48	2.34
Destiny		0.41	2.59
Eigenvalues	5.71	2.00
% of variance	28.53%	9.96%