Desai S, Alva S
Center on Population, Gender and Social Inequality, University of Maryland at College Park 20742-1315.
Demography. 1998 Feb;35(1):71-81.
Using data from the first round of Demographic and Health Surveys for 22 developing countries, we examine the effect of maternal education on three markers of child health: infant mortality, children's height-for-age, and immunization status. In contrast to other studies, we argue that although there is a strong correlation between maternal education and markers of child health, a causal relationship is far from established. Education acts as a proxy for the socioeconomic status of the family and geographic area of residence. Introducing controls for husband's education and access to piped water and toilet attenuate the impact of maternal education on infant mortality and children's height-for-age. This effect is further reduced by controlling for area of residence through the use of fixed-effects models. In the final model, maternal education has a statistically significant impact on infant mortality and height-for-age in only a handful of countries. In contrast, maternal education remains statistically significant for children's immunization status in about one-half of the countries even after individual-level and community-level controls are introduced.
利用22个发展中国家第一轮人口与健康调查的数据，我们研究了母亲教育程度对儿童健康三个指标的影响：婴儿死亡率、儿童身高别年龄以及免疫状况。与其他研究不同的是，我们认为，尽管母亲教育程度与儿童健康指标之间存在很强的相关性，但因果关系远未确立。教育是家庭社会经济地位和居住地理区域的一个替代指标。引入丈夫教育程度以及获得自来水和卫生设施的控制变量后，母亲教育程度对婴儿死亡率和儿童身高别年龄的影响减弱。通过使用固定效应模型控制居住地区，这种影响进一步降低。在最终模型中，母亲教育程度仅在少数几个国家对婴儿死亡率和身高别年龄有统计学上的显著影响。相比之下，即使引入了个体层面和社区层面的控制变量，在约一半的国家中，母亲教育程度对儿童免疫状况仍具有统计学上的显著意义。
