Mother’s Education and Utilisation of Health Care Services in Pakistan

Education is one of the crucial social development variables especially for mothers which enriches their mind about their social and reproductive experiences and broadens their understanding to make better choices for themselves and rearing and bearing of their children. In many developing countries there is evidence that mother’s education plays an important role in determining child mortality even in situations where the medical facilities are scanty [Berrera (1990); Caldwell (1979, 1981)]. Education, it is argued influences women’s beliefs about the good health, causes and cures of diseases that increases the demand of the utilisation of modern health care facilities. Therefore, educated mothers are more likely to seek medical treatment for themselves and for their children resulting in higher intensity of the use of a better quality modern care that grows with the advancement of education. Evidence from the research done elsewhere suggests that mother’s education has individual positive effect on the use of health care facilities Abbas and Walker (1986); Berrera (1990) and Caldwell (1979) have pointed out that educated mothers are more likely to take advantage of the modern health facilities than their uneducated counterparts in compliance to the recommended treatments primarily due to the different attitudes in regard to the knowledge and perceptions of the importance of the modern medicine in the care of their children. Berrera (1990) in a study of child nutrition in the Philippines found that the children of educated mothers took more advantage of the public health care facilities than the children of uneducated mothers.