Mothers’ education and childhood anaemia in Uganda

Abstract

This article employs ordered probit to examine the effect mother’s education and other socio-economic and community factors on the prevalence of childhood anaemia in urban and rural areas and severity of anaemia in Uganda using the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey. In Uganda, 53% of children aged 6–59 months suffered from some degree of anaemia, with 24% being mildly anaemic, 27% moderately anaemic, and 2% severely anaemic (UDHS, 2016). Anaemia has substantial negative effects on the health and economic wellbeing of nations and communities. The study findings indicate that mother’s education attainment and the partner’s schooling and socio-economic factors are important in explaining the prevalence of childhood anaemia in Uganda. The major implication of these results is that raising women’s education improves their economic opportunities, and the behavioural responses and this can greatly improve children’s health outcomes in terms of low prevalence of childhood anaemia.