Mothers Education and Respiratory Infection in Under-Five Children in Nigeria

Abstract

Respiratory infection is one of the major causes of child ill health and mortality not only in Nigeria, but in most developing countries of the world. This study therefore, investigated the causal relationship between mothers’ level of education and under-five age respiratory infection in Nigeria. Probit regression is used to analyse data from Nigeria Multiple indicator cluster survey 2017. Results from the bivariate regression indicated a significant negative relationship between mothers’ educational level and respiratory infection in under-five age children in Nigeria. Mothers’ educational level became insignificant after controlling for other important covariates which signifies an indirect relationship with child respiratory infection. This implies that mothers’ education influences child respiratory disorder through other variables like place of residence and immunization. Other variables found to influence child respiratory infection includes region of residence, age of child, immunization and ethnicity. On the other hand, sex of child and wealth index were not found to be significant determinants of child respiratory infection. Nigerian government should encourage girl child education through the provision of free quality education at least to secondary school level. Programs to target free diagnosis, treatment and prevention of respiratory infection especially among under-five children should be prioritized by the ministry of health. Health care providers should also intensify awareness to mothers on preventive measures of child respiratory infection especially during antenatal care programs.