Women's empowerment and childhood malaria in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from DHS, 2013-2022

Background

Women's empowerment is known to be associated with better access to child healthcare and household prevention practices. Children under five years of age depend on caregivers for access to malaria prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, making maternal agency potentially relevant to childhood malaria. However, evidence linking its multidimensional components to childhood malaria remains limited. We examined the association between women's empowerment and childhood malaria among children in sub-Saharan Africa and explored whether these associations varied across countries and according to the children's bed net utilisation.