Abstract:
The conditions of child health have improved around the globe with the passage of time. Though
this improvement in children‘s health has also been witnessed in Ghana, it has been slow and
unevenly distributed across the country. Ghana‘s child health indicators are still below the average
conditions that prevail worldwide. The under-five mortality rate in Ghana is still higher than the
average rate around the world and a relatively higher percentage of the children below age five in
Ghana suffer from Acute Respiratory Infection, diarrhoea and fever than their counterparts in other
parts of the world. On the average, a child in Ghana is more at risk of stunting, wasting or being
malnourished than the average child worldwide.
Considering the immense significance of children to the survival of our society, the development
of a strong labour force and the future economic development, policies must be developed to
remedy the situation. Health is multidimensional in nature, ranging from biological to social and
psychological dimensions. A number of factors have been investigated to determine their effect on
child health and maternal education is one of the prominent factors that have often been
mentioned. However, the influence of maternal education on child health in Ghana is largely
unknown and as a result, child health policies in Ghana have ignored maternal education.
This study investigates the effect of maternal education on under-five mortality, prevalence of
ARI, incidence of diarrhoea and occurrence of fever using logistic regression. The findings reveals
that higher maternal education significantly reduces the occurrence of mortality, incidence of
diarrhoea, prevalence of ARI and occurrence of fever among children below age five in Ghana.
Hence, the study urges policy makers to encourage higher female education through the use of
direct and indirect incentives. Education should also be made accessible to every female, whilst the
disparity in economic and social conditions that prevail among households should be evened out.
