Strategies Educated Mothers Use to Ensure the Health of Their Children

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Abstract
Mothers attending the out-patients in a programme of primary health care in rural west Bengal were interviewed for obtaining personal, socio-economic, and health data. Anthropometric measurements were made on them and their accompanying children. Sixty-five of the mothers were educated (defined as primary level and above of education) and 136 were not. The uneducated group had experienced a greater rate of child loss at 130 per 1000 births compared to 58 per 1000 births in the educated group. They were shorter (mean height 1.487±0.047 5m) compared to the educated group (mean height 1.507±0.051m; PP<0.001). These differences persisted after controlling for soclo-economic status. The strategies used by the educated mothers were significantly more appropriate than those of their non-educated counterparts with regard to pregnancy and childbirth, diarrhoea, Immunization, family planning, and source of treatment in illness. The educated women also benefited more from the primary health care programme.

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