A Study of the Relationship between Maternal Education and the Risk of Under-Five Child Mortality in Colombia

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  • November 11, 2019
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  • Brittingham, Sarah
    • Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health
Abstract
  • Objectives: This paper assesses the extent to which maternal education is associated with under-five mortality in Colombia. Analysis of timing of child death provides insight as to which ages of death are most affected by maternal education. Methods: The 2010 Demographic and Health Survey for Colombia provided a dataset exceeding 17,000 children and infants. Binary logistic regression measures the crude and adjusted relationship between maternal education and child mortality. Nested models control for wealth, urban-rural residence, cesarean delivery, and age at first marriage. Results: Key findings are that children of women with primary education experience a crude odds ratio of survival of 2.3 (95% CI: 1.1, 4.5) compared to the referent group of children of women with no education. Children of women with secondary education have 3.3 odds of survival (95% CI: 1.6, 6.6) and children of women with higher education have 3.6 (95% CI: 1.7, 7.7) odds of survival compared to children of women with no education. A strong association between education and child survival is sustained with the introduction of controls, reducing the adjusted odds (AOR) for children of mothers with primary education to 2.2 (95% CI: 1.1, 4.3), for children of mothers with secondary education to 2.8 (95% CI: 1.4, 5.8) and to 2.6 (95% CI: 1.1, 6.2) for children of women with higher education. Conclusions: In Colombia, maternal education has a clear association with levels of child mortality and age of death, both of which decrease with more advanced levels of maternal education. Resources aiming to decrease child mortality should be dedicated in part to increasing levels of education among mothers. Effective child health services should be scaled up and targeted to women with lower levels of education and higher ages of death. Keywords: Child mortality, child death, under-five death, under-five mortality, maternal education, primary education, MDG 2, universal primary education, secondary education
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  • In Copyright
Note
  • Paper type: Original research
Advisor
  • Hussey, Jon
  • Bennett, Trude
Degree
  • Master of Public Health
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Graduation year
  • 2014
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  • 26b36343-4139-482f-941e-4e3f49cbb9ab

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