"Influence of mothers" education on child health

Abstract

This project paper highlights the effect of mother's education on the uptake of the vaccination antigens in Kenya, using the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The survey was conducted by the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) in collaboration with the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) and the Institute of Research Development (IRD). The main objective of the study who to determine the influence of mother's education on the uptake of complete vaccination among children born in Kenya, three years preceding the survey. The study was also to establish the variability in the uptake of the individual vaccines; by mothers education and by the other co-varieties included in the analysis namely:- age, type of place of resistance (urban/rural), marital status of mother, household economic status, region of residence, birth order. The two main methods of data analysis that are used are cross tabulations and logistic regression. The study f as revealed that education influences the uptake of individual vaccine uptake as well as the complete vaccination. The uptake of the antigens, BCG, Oral polio, Polio 1,2,3, measles, DPT 1,2,3 increases with the level of education. The uptake of complete vaccination also increases with the level of education; from 53.1% to 58.1% to 67.1%. Education is significantly associated with the uptake of complete vaccination. The study established that the gross effect of education on the complete vaccination is higher but it reduces when effects of other variables are controlled for such as type of place of residence; socio-economic status, age of mother; birth order, marital status; and region of residence. The bivariate analysis reveals that the children born to mothers with primary education were 1.19 likely to be fully immunized as compare to children born to mothers with no education. Children born to mother's with secondary education were 1.7 times likely to be fully immunized compared to children born to mothers with no education. The results of the logistic regressions showed that the effects of other variables are controlled for. The effect of education reduces to 1.02 and 1.35 times likely to be fully immunized for children born to mothers with primary education and secondary education respectively.