Population Council Research that makes a difference

Population Association of America (PAA) 2012 Annual Meeting
3–5 May

Abstract

"The association between herpes simplex type 2, educational attainment, school status and learning outcomes among adolescents in rural Malawi"
Barbara S. Mensch, Paul C. Hewett, Christine A. Kelly, Monica J. Grant, Christopher Sudfeld, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, and Satvika Chalasani*

Demographers have long observed that the better educated are healthier than their less educated counterparts. Yet, beginning in the early 1990s, research in sub-Saharan Africa indicated that HIV prevalence was higher among those with more schooling. Studies found that the better educated were more likely to live in urban areas, were more mobile, and had greater disposable income. Using data from a longitudinal survey of adolescents in rural Malawi first interviewed in 2007, and HIV and HSV-2 results collected from respondents in 2010 and 2011, the goals of this paper are: 1) to estimate the association between HSV-2, and educational attainment and learning outcomes; and 2) to estimate the association between HSV-2 seroconversion and current school status. Because HIV prevalence is too low at this age to provide sufficient power for estimating associations reliably, HSV-2 status, which is strongly associated with HIV, is used as an indicator of HIV risk.

* Fred H. Bixby fellow

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