Associação entre a educação materna e mortalidade das crianças menores de 5 anos de idade na Guiné-Bissau: uma análise dos nascidos vivos únicos reportados pelas mães no MICS 2014

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the association between maternal education and mortality of children under five years of age (infant mortality and child mortality) in Guinea-Bissau, using data from the fifth round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). We analyzed information on single births from 2000-2014 reported by mothers during MICS 2014. The inverse relationship between maternal education and child mortality was found in large regions of developing countries, including sub-Saharan Africa. However, there are few studies in Guinea-Bissau that emphasize the association between maternal education and child mortality, although there are many contributions to the study of the determinants of under-five years mortality. Considering, on the one hand, the Mosley and Chen Framework on the study of the determinants of child mortality in developing countries and, on the other hand, several studies aimed to understand the association between maternal education and mortality of children under five years of age two hypotheses were established: maternal education is expected to be associated with infant mortality in the absence and in the presence of the other associated factors; maternal education is expected to be associated with child mortality in the absence and presence of other factors. Two analyzes were used to investigate the association between maternal education and mortality of children under 5 years of age, using binary logistic regression method whose variable response is occurrence or non-occurrence of death (infant mortality and child mortality, depending on the case) being zero (0) the non-occurrence and one (1) the occurrence of death. Analysis 1 allowed to establish the statistical association between maternal education and mortality of children under 5 years (infant and child mortality) in the absence of the other associated factors. Analysis 2 allowed to evaluate the association between maternal education and mortality of children under 5 years of age in the presence of the other associated factors. The results pointed out the existence of a negative association between maternal education and child mortality, in the presence and absence of other factors. However, maternal education was not associated with infant mortality at the same time in the presence and absence of other covariates, which is contrary to what has been pointed out in the literature. Secondary and further education levels were significantly associated with reduced levels of child mortality. Public policies that promote education of women can have positive impact on the health and survival of children under 5 years of age in Guinea-Bissau.