Demand for Vaccination in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Vertical Legacy of the Slave Trade

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State: Public
Version: author
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_AF99A8698030
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Demand for Vaccination in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Vertical Legacy of the Slave Trade
Journal
Social Science & Medicine
Author(s)
Athias Laure, Macina Moudo
Publication state
Published
Issued date
01/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
293
Pages
114640
Language
english
Abstract
We combine historical data on the slave trade by ethnic group with individual-level data geolocated at the cluster level from the 2010–2014 Demographic and Health Surveys to examine the relationship between ancestors' exposure to the slave trade and children vaccination status against measles. Exploiting within-location variation, and hence isolating the vertical cultural transmission channel of the slave trade, we find that children from mothers whose ancestors were exposed to the slave trade are less likely to be vaccinated than children living in the same location but with mothers from a slave-free ethnic group. The effect is larger than that of standard determinants of health demand, such as education or revenue. Exploiting other health behaviors, we point to mistrust as the channel through which the slave trade affects current demand for vaccination. We find evidence of increased adverse effect of slave trade exposure on contemporaneous demand for vaccination among the descendants whose family has a higher preference for traditional practices and higher incentives to transmit their inherited cultural traits. While we know that there is not a uniform health policy code deemed appropriate for all geographical areas, our results suggest that there is space to integrate ethnic groups’ historical-specificity in health policy design and communication.
Keywords
Vaccine, Health demand, Trust, Slave trade, Vertical cultural transmission
Open Access
Yes
Create date
08/12/2021 14:43
Last modification date
22/07/2022 6:37
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