Relationship Between Maternal Education and Childhood Health Status in Myanmar

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between maternal education and childhood health status measured by the child’s height-for-age Z-score (HAZ), weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ), and whether the child has received two full doses of the measles vaccine. The paper utilizes IPUMS’s 2015 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data. The paper employs a standard ordinary least square (OLS) regression and a cluster fixed effects regression. The study shows that a mother’s education is not significantly related to her child’s WHZ, and the relationship between her education and her child’s HAZ becomes insignificant after controlling for socioeconomic variables. The child’s measles vaccine status, on the other hand, is significantly correlated with the mother’s education, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables. After adding cluster-fixed effects, the relationship between the mother’s education and the child's WHZ and HAZ disappears. Still, the mother’s education and the child’s measles vaccine status remain significant at the 10% significance level.