HEALTH-PROGRAMS, MATERNAL EDUCATION, AND DIFFERENTIAL CHILD-MORTALITYIN MATLAB, BANGLADESH

This article examines the extent to which differences in child mortali ty linked to mother's education are affected by health intervention pr ograms. The Matlab research area in Bangladesh, site of the study, exh ibits variations in the composition of services within the interventio n area, the presence of a comparison group, and a time series of accur ate data since the 1960s. Results show that children in the ''mother h ad no schooling'' subgroup benefited most from the interventions. Diff erences in child mortality linked to maternal schooling were sharply d iminished in the ''intensive'' blocks of the Matlab intervention area, moderately reduced in the nonintensive blocks, and remained large in the comparison area. In the intensive intervention area, the effect of maternal schooling on overall child mortality was diminished particul arly because of the absence of measles deaths, while insignificant dif ferences were related to mother's schooling in deaths from watery diar rhea, fever, respiratory diseases, and ''other causes,'' with the exce ption of dysentery and accidental drowning.