Health of Afghan children jeopardized by family behaviors, not just war

August 30, 2008 (2:48)

When I read the title of this article I was immediately interested, because I didn’t see how the issue of child health could possibly be related to family behavior, but as I read on I found that it was true and the points brought about made a lot of since. They proved a good point stating that “shortages of water, food and shelter and the forced displacement of families from their homes are all associated with the prevalence of easily preventable illnesses and indicators of chronic poor health.” The article provided an example of a study done to prove this thesis. They explained how a research team took information on the children such as height and weight, along with a few other factors. Then they asked the mothers of the children a series of questions such as education level, whether or not they themselves had access to a physician and what their level of independence they had when making the decision on health care for their child. They found a correlation between the two.

I found it appealing as well as mind boggling that something like that could affect the other. Whenever I think about child illness the first thing that comes to mind is families that don’t have the funds to support their family and can’t pay to get the proper health care that the children need. I would have never suspected something such war and family behaviors would have caused illness, not in this way at least.

http://www.newspostonline.com/world-news/health-of-afghan-children-jeopardized-by-family-behaviors-not-just-war-200808303386