THE IMPACT OF FORMAL MATERNAL EDUCATION ON CHILD SURVIVAL IN GHANA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47604/gjhs.1418Keywords:
Child Survival, GDHS, Maternal Education, Mediate, Probit.Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigated the impact of formal maternal education on child survival in Ghana using a probit model.
Methodology:This study used data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey for the period of 1993 to 2008. It is nationally representative sample including urban and rural areas in the 10 regions of Ghana. It looks at trends in demographic and health indicators and is conducted every five years (GSS, 2009). .
Findings: Mothers' education had a positive and significant effect on child survival. In 2003 the probability of a child surviving up to age five increased by 15.4 percentage points for one year increase in mothers' education, using control variables and 8.9 percentage points for a year increase in mothers' education, after including socio-economic and reproductive factors of women, which revealed the true partial effect of maternal education.
Unique contributions to theory practice and policy: It was observed that socio-economic and reproductive factors of women had an impact as well, hence policy makers should act to improve on these factors in order to complement the effect of formal maternal education to promote child survival in Ghana.
Downloads
References
Adebayo, S. B. and L. Fahrmeir (2005). Analysing Child Mortality in Nigeria with Geo-additive Discrete Time Survival Models. Statistics in Medicine, 24(5): 709-728.
Aderinwale, E.O. (2013). Challenges of Reducing Under-Five Mortality: An Analysis of Contributing Factors from the Nigerian context.A Research Paper in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of Master of Arts in Economics of Development. International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague.
Adhikari, R. and Y. Sawangdee, (2011). Influence of Women's Autonomy on Infant Mortality in Nepal.Reproductive Health, 8(7): 1-8.
Andoh, S. Y. M. Umezaki, K. Nakamura, M. Kizuki, and T. Takano (2007). Association of House-hold Demographic Variables with Child Mortality in Cote d'Ivoire.Journal Biosocial Science, 39(2): 257.
Aslam, M. and G., G. Kingdon (2012). Parental Education and Child Health: Understanding the Pathways of Impact in Pakistan. World Development, 40(10): 2014-2032.
Barrera, A. (1990). The Role of Maternal Schooling and its Interaction with Public Health Programs in Child Health Production, Journal of Development Economics, 32: 69-91.
Barrett, H. and A. Browne (1996). Health, Hygiene and Maternal Education: Evidence from the Gambia. Social Science & Medicine, 43(11): 1579-1590.
Bicego, G. T. and J. T. Boerma (1993). Maternal Education and Child Survival: AComparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries.Social Science and Medicine.36 (9): 1207-1227.
Bilal, N. (2012).Health Extension Program: An Innovative Solutions to Public Health Challenges of Ethiopia: A Case Study, Health Systems. 20/20, USAID.
Buor, D. (2003). Mothers' Education and Childhood Mortality in Ghana, Health policy,64(3): 297-309.
Caldwell, J. and P. McDonald (1982). Influence of Maternal Education on Infant and Child Mortality: Levels and Causes, Health Policy and Education. 2(3): 251-267.
Chen, Y. and H. Li (2009). Mother's Education and Child Health: Is There a Nurturing Effect? Journal of Health Economics, 28(2): 413-426.
Christiaensen, L. and H. Alderman (2004). Child Malnutrition in Ethiopia: Can Maternal Knowledge Augment the Role of Income? Economic Development and Cultural Change 52(2): 287-312.
Cleland J. C. and J. Van Ginneken (1988). Maternal Education and Child Survival in Developing Countries: The Search for Pathways of Influence, Social Science and Medicine. 27(12): 1357-1368.
Cochrane, S. H., J. Leslie, and D. J. O'Hara (1982) "˜Parental Education and Child Health: Intra-country Evidence. Health policy and education.2(3): 213-250.
Desai, S., and S., Alva (1998). Maternal Education and Child Health: Is there a Strong Causal Rela-tionship? Demography. 35(1): 71-81.
Dejene, T. and E. Girma (2013). Social Determinants of Under-Five Mortality in Ethiopia: Event History Analysis Using Evidence from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS)', Health, 5(5):(1949-4998).
Frost, M. B. R. Forste, and D. W. Haas (2005). Maternal Education and Child Nutritional Status in Bolivia: Finding the Links. Social Science & Medicine, 60(2): 395-407.
Ghana Statistical Service GSS, Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Macro International Inc. (2009).Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2008. Accra, Ghana: GSS, GHS and Macro International Inc.
Handa, S. (1999). Maternal Education and Child Height', Economic Development and Cultural Change, 47(2): 421-439.
Ikeako, L., C., H., E. Onah, and G., C., Iloabachie (2006). Influence of Formal Maternal Education on The Use of Maternity Services in Enugu, Nigeria.Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.26(1): 30-34.
IGME (2011). Levels and Trends in Child Mortality, Retrieve on March 13, 2016 from http://www.childmortality.org/
Kassouf, A. L. and B. Senauer (1996). Direct and Indirect Effects of Parental Education on Malnutrition among Children in Brazil: A Full Income Approach. Economic Development and Cultural Change. 817-838.
Lozano, R., H. Wang, K. J. Foreman, J. K. Rajaratnam, M. Naghavi, J. R. Marcus, and C. J. Murray (2011). Progress towards Millennium Development Goals 4 And 5 on Maternal and Child Mortality: An Updated Systematic Analysis. The Lancet. 378(9797): 1139-1165.
Macassa, G., G. Ghilagaber, E. Bernhardt, F. Diderichsen, and B. Burström (2003). Inequalities in Child Mortality in Mozambique: Differentials by Parental Socio-Economic Position', Social sci-ence& medicine. 57(12): 2255-2264.
Mekonnen, D. (2011). Infant and child mortality in Ethiopia: the Role of Socio economic, Demographic and Biological Factors in the previous five years period of 2000 and 2005. MSc Thesis. Department of Economic History, Master Program in Economic Demography, Lund University.
Mekonnen, Y., B. Tensou, , D. S. Telake, T. Degefie, and A. Bekele (2013) "˜Neonatal Mortality in Ethiopia: Trends and Determinants. BMC Public Health 13(1): 483.
Mosley, W. H. and L. C. Chen (1984). An Analytical Framework for the Study of Child Survival in Developing Countries.Population and Development Review.25-45.
Mulugeta, F. Z. (2012). Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Childhood Mortality In Ethiopia: An Instrumental Variable Approach', Ethiopian Journal of Economics. XX (2): 63-81.
Raj A., N. Saggurti, M. Winter, A. Labonte, M. R. Decker, and D..Balaiah, J. G. Silverman (2010). The Effect of Maternal Child Marriage on Morbidity and Mortality of Children under five in India: Cross Sectional Study of a Nationally Representative Sample. BMJ. 340:b4258.
Van der Klaauw, B. and L. Wang (2011). Child mortality in rural India.Journal of Population Economics.24:601-628.
Zachary, B., Z. Moore and P. Govindasamy (2013). Trends in Demographic and Reproductive Health Indicators in Ethiopia Data from the 2000, 2005, and 2011 Demographic and Health Surveys.ICF International Inc. Calverton, Maryland USA.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Samuel Laari, Professor Shingo Takahashi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
