Sultana Toufica, Ruiz-Casares Mónica, Iwo René, Janus Magdalena, Nazif-Muñoz José Ignacio
Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
South Asian Institute of Social Transformation, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Glob Pediatr Health. 2024 Jun 7;11:2333794X241258179. doi: 10.1177/2333794X241258179. eCollection 2024.
Maternal education may influence child supervision practices in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). However, little is known about the maternal factors that can improve child supervision in LMIC with scarce childcare facilities. To investigate the prevalence of children under 5 years home alone and examine the association between mother's formal education and children home alone across 63 LMIC. The study used data from 50 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and 13 Demographic and Health Surveys with a sample of 501 769 children. We estimated Prevalence Ratios (PRs) for the association between maternal education and children home alone using multivariable Poisson regression, adjusting for covariates such as child's age and sex, mother's age and marital status, number of adults inhabiting the households, and urbanicity. Prevalence of children home alone across 63 LMIC ranged from 1.1% to 50.1%. A significant negative association between mothers with more years of formal education and children home alone was found across 16 LMIC. However, the opposite trend was observed in Nigeria, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire. Null association was found across 44 LMIC. The varied pattern of the associations observed across LMIC underscores the importance of regional and local factors when developing policies and interventions to ensure safety and adequate care for children aged under 5 years in LMIC.
在低收入和中等收入国家（LMIC），母亲的教育程度可能会影响儿童监管方式。然而，对于在儿童保育设施匮乏的低收入和中等收入国家，哪些母亲因素能够改善儿童监管情况，我们却知之甚少。为调查63个低收入和中等收入国家5岁以下儿童独自在家的 prevalence，并检验母亲的正规教育与儿童独自在家之间的关联。该研究使用了来自50项多指标类集调查和13项人口与健康调查的数据，样本包括501769名儿童。我们使用多变量泊松回归估计母亲教育程度与儿童独自在家之间关联的患病率比值（PRs），并对儿童年龄和性别、母亲年龄和婚姻状况、居住在家庭中的成年人数量以及城市化程度等协变量进行了调整。63个低收入和中等收入国家儿童独自在家的患病率在1.1%至50.1%之间。在16个低收入和中等收入国家中，发现接受正规教育年限较长的母亲与儿童独自在家之间存在显著的负相关。然而，在尼日利亚、塞内加尔和科特迪瓦观察到了相反的趋势。在44个低收入和中等收入国家中发现无关联。在低收入和中等收入国家中观察到的关联模式各不相同，这凸显了在制定政策和干预措施以确保低收入和中等收入国家5岁以下儿童的安全和充分照料时，区域和地方因素的重要性。
