摘要：This article systematically addresses mother’s education as a fundamental
determinant of child mortality in developing countries. The main proposition is
that setting the right policy priorities in developing countries requires
distinguishing between the role of education and that of material resources in
influencing child survival. Despite a tendency to regard both education and
economic resources as interchangeable indicators of socioeconomic status,
determining their relative importance with respect to child health is important
because policies for enhancing one or the other can be quite different. We begin
with a comprehensive review of the literature addressing the different causal
mechanisms through which maternal education impacts on the health of her
offspring. We include better maternal health, increased health-specific
knowledge, adoption of non-traditional behaviours, and general female
empowerment in addition to the effects of greater economic resources gained as a
consequence of education. We use recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)
data for developing countries and examine the associations between survival of
the youngest child over the first year of life, the mother’s educational attainment
and the DHS indicator of household wealth both descriptively and using
multivariate models. The results show that in the vast majority of countries and
under virtually all models mother’s education matters more for infant survival
than household wealth. Our findings challenge frequently held views and suggest
a reorientation of global health policies to more directly address increasing female
education as a primary policy option for improving child health.
