Maternal Education and Child Vaccination in Iran: Logistic Regression Estimation of the Effect of Mother’s Education on Complete Immunisation

Morteza Alibakhshikenari

Department of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Stirling University, Scotland, UK

Dr. Morteza Alibakhshikenari, Department of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Stirling University, Scotland, UK.

Keywords: Mother’s Education; Empowerment; Intrahousehold Allocation; Child Immunisation; Logit Estimation

Abstract

This paper estimates the effect of maternal education on child immunisation status in Iran. The paper considers complete immunisation, the child receiving all vaccinations - a dose of BCG, three doses of DPT and three doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) within the age of 12-48 months. The paper uses the 6^th round of the Demographic and Health Survey of Iran for the year 2015-16 (DHS-VI), consisting of 12817 samples. Empirically, as the dependent variable is binary - whether the child has received complete immunisation or not, a logistic regression model is used. The logit estimates show that the effect of female education on complete child vaccination is significantly positive. Woman with at least formal education is better placed in seeking child immunisation. This positive effect is further facilitated by knowledge and awareness of immunisation programmes. Socioeconomic variables like status, father’s education, birth order, urban residence and religion also show significant influence on child immunisation status. Significantly, more boys receive complete immunisation than girls, showing some form of neglect of female children. The estimated results further show that community and births are not important for child immunisation in Iran. The paper suggests that an inclusive approach that improves female schooling, health knowledge, and positive attitudes toward modern healthcare among mothers are beneficial for complete vaccination of children in Iran towards improving child health and reducing child mortality in India, a measure that will take Iran a step closer to achieving the SDG goals.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).