The Impact of Parents' Education on Child Health from the perspective of Demographic and Health Survey

Abstract

The prevalence of underweight at 31 % and stunting at 44 % among under 5 children indicates poor child health situation in Pakistan. Although many significant covariates of malnutrition have been outlined in past studies, most of them do not signify parents’ education as a composite factor to affect child malnutrition. Hence, this research will investigate the impact of parents’ education on malnutrition, controlling for other socio-demographic and behavioral confounders.

This study will construct logistical regression modeling using an analytical framework for empirical analysis using a data set of 3199 selected mothers produced birth cards at the survey time, retrieved from the latest Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13.

Among empirical outcomes, parents’ education, household economic rank and environmental settings have significant influence on underweight and stunted infants. The interesting point is that likelihood of stunting growth is relatively less reduced than that of underweight growth when one parent with secondary and second with primary level of education, but, underweight hazard is decreased little less as only one parent is with primary level of education comparing with stunting risk. Highly educated parents have similar likelihood of acute and chronic malnutrition. Rich households appeared little more effective to cause stunted kids than underweight ones. Furthermore, moderate environment setting significantly generates a higher risk of underweight relative to stunting hazard for the kids. These outcomes suggest that parents’ education should be targeted in the public health policies to scale up child nutrition in both time span.