Helen Moestue|Sharon Huttly
Adult education and child nutrition: the role of family and community
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine|London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
background well established mothers education positive effects child nutrition developing countriesless explored effect exerted education individualsmothers friends neighbours familyobjectives examine independent effects mothers fathers grandmothers education child heightforage weightforage zscore role communitylevel maternal literacy parental education individuallevel factorsmethods crosssectional data analysed 5692 children andhra pradesh state india vietnam sampled within sites 20 country within communities 31 vietnam 102 indiamultilevel regression analysis undertaken account confounders geographical clustering observationsresults child nutrition positively independently associated mothers fathers grandmothers educationthe association grandmothers education statistically significant india sample stronger boys adjusted mean difference heightforage zscores boys living educated grandmother 064 95 ci 029 099 p0001in vietnam sample child nutrition associated proportion literate mothers community adjusting parental education confounders height 081 95 ci 029 131 p 0002 conclusionthe results imply individuallevel perspective may fail capture entire impact education child nutrition support call widening focus nutrition policy programmes motherchild pair towards broader context family community