title: Maternal education and child nutritional status in Bolivia: finding the links.
abstract: This study models various pathways linking maternal education and child nutritional status in Bolivia, using a national sample of children. Pathways examined include socioeconomic status, health knowledge, modern attitudes towards health care, female autonomy, and reproductive behavior. The data come from the 1998 Bolivia Demographic and Health Survey. Logistic regression results suggest that socioeconomic factors are the most important pathways linking maternal education and child nutritional status, and that modern attitudes about health care also explain the impact of education. Health care knowledge accounts for less of the effect of maternal education on child nutritional status, with autonomy being the weakest pathway. Other pathways, such as reproductive behaviors, appear to influence nutritional status independent of maternal education. Overall, the pathways examined accounted for 60 percent of the effect of maternal education on child nutritional status.
authors.affiliation: Office of Population Research, Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. mbfrost@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Michelle Bellessa
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Forste
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Haas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001838:Bolivia; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D003657:Decision Making; D003906:Developing Countries; D004522:Educational Status; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D009752:Nutritional Status; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D043762:Reproductive Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors