The effect of maternal education on gender bias in care-seeking for common childhood illnesses

Curiously, our results show that gender bias is highest amongst highly educated mothers, and decreases steadily for children of mothers with a middle school education, a primary school education, and is lowest amongst mothers with no formal education. Put differently, female children of mothers with no formal education were significantly more likely to be hospitalised than children of mothers with several years of formal education, even after adjusting for all other factors. Economic status was not found to affect the association of gender and hospitalisation, though overall odds of hospitalisation rose with increasing economic status. Paternal education was found not to be significantly related to hospitalisation.