School education for mothers: How much is needed to promote child survival and health?

Cesar Victora: leader in child health and development

Framing an agenda for children thriving in the SDG era: a WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission on Child Health and Wellbeing

Child health: reducing inequities

Jerome Kabakyenga: prioritising rural health research in Uganda

Strategies to improve health coverage and narrow the equity gap in child survival, health, and nutrition

Women's, children's, and adolescents' health: who will lead?

Impacts on children's health of adverse childhood experiences of their mothers: A gender-specific mediation analysis using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

A variety of legislation, initiatives and organizations exist to support, encourage and even oblige schools to collaborate more effectively with parents or guardians. However, there is minimal understanding of the experiences and opinions of parents and school staff about their roles, especially in relation to children's health education. This study examined how parents of 10-11-year-old children perceive the roles of both home and school in educating children about health. A questionnaire, based partly on the Finnish national core curriculum for basic education, was administered to 348 parents; the response rate was 53%. Factor analysis was used to define sum variables, which were then used as dependent variables in an analysis of variance examining the effects of children's gender and health; parents' education, gender, work status and year of birth; and school location (urban/rural). The results suggested that parents considered that either health education was mainly their responsibility, or it was a mutual responsibility with the school. Parents living in rural areas and the youngest group of parents were more likely to consider that health education should be shared with schools than were parents living in cities, or older parents. To expand awareness about the role of home and school in children's health education and to develop further health promotion within the whole school community, it is important to gather parents' views regarding health issues. This study was conducted as part of a broader program in the health promotion network of the Schools for Health in Europe (SHE).

Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) has been adopted by over 80 countries as a strategy for reducing child mortality and improving child health and development. It includes complementary interventions designed to address the major causes of child mortality at community, health facility, and health system levels. The Multi-Country Evaluation of IMCI Effectiveness, Cost and Impact (IMCI-MCE) is a global evaluation to determine the impact of IMCI on health outcomes and its cost-effectiveness. The MCE is coordinated by the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development of the World Health Organization. MCE studies are under way in Bangladesh, Brazil, Peru, Tanzania and Uganda. In Tanzania, the IMCI-MCE study uses a non-randomized observational design comparing four neighbouring districts, two of which have been implementing IMCI in conjunction with evidence-based planning and expenditure mapping at district level since 1997, and two of which began IMCI implementation in 2002. In these four districts, child health and child survival are documented at household level through cross-sectional, before-and-after surveys and through longitudinal demographic surveillance respectively. Here we present results of a survey conducted in August 2000 in stratified random samples of government health facilities to compare the quality of case-management and health systems support in IMCI and comparison districts. The results indicate that children in IMCI districts received better care than children in comparison districts: their health problems were more thoroughly assessed, they were more likely to be diagnosed and treated correctly as determined through a gold-standard re-examination, and the caretakers of the children were more likely to receive appropriate counselling and reported higher levels of knowledge about how to care for their sick children. There were few differences between IMCI and comparison districts in the level of health system support for child health services at facility level. This study suggests that IMCI, in the presence of a decentralized health system with practical health system planning tools, is feasible for implementation in resource-poor countries and can lead to rapid gains in the quality of case-management. IMCI is therefore likely to lead to rapid gains in child survival, health and development if adequate coverage levels can be achieved and maintained.

In a bargaining model of household decision‐making, any variable reflecting the outside opportunities of household members will influence household demand patterns. Mother's education has been found to be an important determinant of children's education and health outcomes. This paper argues that within a bargaining framework, mother's education may influence children's health and education by shifting bargaining power within the household. An empirical strategy is developed and applied to data on teenage grade attainment and school enrolment in Jamaica. The results support the bargaining power hypothesis, and imply a broader role for mother's education than has previously been considered.

Optimising child and adolescent health and development in the post-pandemic world

Integrated approach to child health in developing countries

In Jamaica the effect of mothers education on child height is independent of household income sanitation sewerage and kitchen facilities as well as access to community health services. There is evidence that education is correlated with unobserved household heterogeneity such as tastes knowledge of symptoms of ill health food preparation methods and variations in the health production function. This correlation is consistent with child care norms in Jamaica where females within households routinely share child care responsibilities and thus information related to child health. An important implication of this result is that the increased education of any woman in the household (and not just the mother or primary caregiver) can have a positive impact on child health. Unlike income information is a public good within the household and thus is easily shared. (excerpt)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is facing the traditional boundaries regarding female education in rural areas. This study investigates the impact of mother education on children's academic achievements and health and suggests measures for improvement in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Therefore, any study related to these issues has played a significant role in the development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the overall study, the answers to the questionnaire filled by the educated women indicated that mostly the positive effect of the educated woman on her children lies between the percentage ranges of 70% to 85%, and most of the P-value and Chi-square values found significantly associated. Two points are elaborated on in this research. The first one is about the effect of an educated woman on the educational status of her children, and the second one is about the effect of an educated woman on the health of her children. The study found that educated women have a 70% to 85% positive effect on their children's educational status, including class position, good behavior, and socioeconomic status. The research indicates that higher maternal education positively impacts children's educational status, with significant associations between P-value and Chi-square values. The study found that educated women positively impact children's health by promoting good eating habits, vaccinations, and polio drop courses, with a 70% to 85% positive effect. The study indicates that higher maternal education positively impacts children's health, with significant associations between P-value and Chi-square values.

Parenting is a constellation of behaviors, yet investigations of the link between parenting and children's health typically focus on singular behaviors. Thus, patterns of health-related parenting among U.S. families, associations between patterns and children's physical health, and the prevalence of such patterns among different sociodemographic groups remain unknown. Applying latent class analysis to the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (2001; n=8,550) revealed six parenting patterns. The pattern characterized by high levels of television watching was associated with the worst overall health; the pattern characterized by the highest consumption of food and amount of outdoor play was linked to the highest odds of obesity. Children of less educated mothers and Black mothers were more likely to experience both of these patterns than the patterns associated with the best child health, but these patterns did not differ for Hispanics (versus Whites). Income differences only appeared for patterns associated with children's general health.