International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India.
J Biosoc Sci. 2013 Sep;45(5):577-99. doi: 10.1017/S0021932012000764. Epub 2012 Dec 10.
This paper examines the association between family structure and child health in India using the third round of the National Family Health Survey, conducted during 2005-06. Two important child health indicators - underweight and full immunization - are used as dependent variables. Descriptive and multivariate statistics are deployed to establish the relationship between family structure and child health. The results of the descriptive statistics show that children who belong to a non-nuclear family have better nutritional status and higher immunization coverage than those in nuclear families. Children living with siblings have worse health status than those living without siblings for both the outcomes. Multivariate analysis shows that family structure has a small effect on the two child health outcomes, which is no longer significant after adjusting for socioeconomic measures and region. However, number of siblings is significantly and negatively associated with the nutritional status of children and full immunization coverage, even after other socio-demographic and geographic factors are controlled for. Along with family structure, parent's educational attainment, age of the mother and household economic status are significant determinants of underweight and full immunization.
本文利用 2005-06 年开展的第三次全国家庭健康调查数据，考察了印度的家庭结构与儿童健康之间的关系。本文将两个重要的儿童健康指标——体重不足和完全免疫——作为因变量。描述性和多变量统计被用来确定家庭结构与儿童健康之间的关系。描述性统计结果表明，与核心家庭相比，非核心家庭的儿童营养状况更好，免疫覆盖率更高。对于这两种结果，与没有兄弟姐妹的儿童相比，有兄弟姐妹的儿童健康状况更差。多变量分析表明，家庭结构对这两个儿童健康结果的影响很小，在调整了社会经济措施和地区因素后，这种影响不再显著。然而，即使在控制了其他社会人口和地理因素后，兄弟姐妹的数量与儿童的营养状况和完全免疫覆盖率仍呈显著负相关。除了家庭结构外，父母的教育程度、母亲的年龄和家庭经济状况也是儿童体重不足和完全免疫的重要决定因素。
