Education level of women – impact on child health status: Evidence from south-east Asian countries

Background: Development in the last decade has brought significant changes in health status of the population. Women being an integral part of the society however did not bear fruits of these changes. Relationship between health status and education of women has been well documented.

Purpose: Main objectives of this research include (1) understand among women with different levels of education their health seeking behavior during pregnancy, and (3) establish association/s between education of mother and gender disparity in child health status.

Data and methods: Data published for south-east Asian countries on population distribution in the past by age, sex and educational attainment from International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), along with the health related data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are used for this research.

Results: Strong and negative correlations are reported for mother's education with the morbidity and mortality among their children. In some countries, the difference in these variables between uneducated mothers and mothers with some primary education is not significant, though effect of universal effect of secondary education is still significant.

Morbidity and mortality among the children for women with their level of education was estimated. Results show expansion of education beyond primary will be a key factor to bring better health and less mortality among the children born in the future.

Implications: Measures should be taken to initiate and implement policies for expanding secondary education for overall improvement in health of women and children.