Seattle (ots/PRNewswire) – Study is one of the few that examines maternal and paternal education and finds a protective effect of both
A new study by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) conducted at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Center for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN) found a significant reduction in the risk of child death associated with the number of years of parental education.
According to the study, a single year of maternal education reduced the risk of death for children under 5 years of age by 3%, and children born to mothers who were 12 years old had a more than 30% lower risk of dying before the age of five, as children of mothers with zero years of education. Twelve years of paternal education reduced the risk of under-5 mortality by 17% compared to no education.
“This research is exciting because the positive effects of education are consistent across geographies and times,” said Hunter York, lead author of the study. ‘While this evidence is not causal, it suggests a relationship beyond the influence of behaviors that are correlated with lower education, such as smoking, or policy interventions aimed at making child survival independent from parental education levels, such as free family planning. These are important mechanisms influencing the relationship between education and child health, but our results suggest that education itself is working positively. “
The study’s authors emphasized the importance of further research on paternal upbringing, which has received far less research than maternal upbringing.
“Even after controlling for mother’s education, father’s education still plays a role,” said Professor Emmanuela Gakidou, one of the study’s lead authors. “Most studies only look at mothers’ years of education, but understanding and analyzing the relationship between the two is critical, and not neglecting the contribution of paternal education to child survival.”
Over 300 studies from 92 countries were included in the analysis, covering over three million live births. The researchers found that the protective effect of parental education increased as the child got older, but was significant for all age groups under 5 years of age.
- In newborns (0-27 days), each additional year of maternal education reduced the risk of mortality by 1.5%. Each year of paternal upbringing reduced the risk by 1.1%.
- In infants (1-11 months), each year of maternal education reduced the risk of death by 3.7%. Each year of paternal education reduced the risk by 1.8%.
- In young children (1-4 years), each year of maternal education reduced the risk of death by 4.4%. Each year of paternal upbringing reduced the risk by 2.2%.
The relationship existed across all regions and after checking for wealth or income, partner’s level of education, and child’s gender.
“Child mortality needs to be further reduced, and investing in education can be the key to achieve this,” said CHAIN director Professor Terje Andreas Eikemo. “It is time for education to be placed on the international political agenda as a global determinant of child survival.”
Importantly, the study also found that the impact of each additional year of education on child survival rates remained the same for primary, secondary, and tertiary education – suggesting that a focus on primary education only opportunities missed the number of deaths reduce in children under 5 and give children the best chance of survival.
“Education and health are linked even across generations,” says Kam Sripada, one of the study’s lead authors. “Universal access to quality schooling must be a priority, from early years through higher education, both to help the current generation reach their potential and to help the next generation survive and thrive. “
The study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation-Boston University Commission on Social Determinants, Data, and Decision Making (3-D Commission).
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Information on the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington School of Medicine that rigorously and comparably measures the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies with which they are addressed. IHME is committed to transparency and makes this information widely available so that policy makers have the evidence they need to implement
Make informed decisions about resource allocation to improve population health.
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