Chasing the Youth Dividend in Nigeria, Malawi and South Africa: What Is the Role of Poverty in Determining the Health and Health Seeking Behaviour of Young Women?

Sibusiso Mkwananzi and Ololade Julius Baruwa ()
Additional contact information
Sibusiso Mkwananzi: Institute for Gender Studies, College of Human Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
Ololade Julius Baruwa: Centre for Demographic Research, Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-9

Abstract: Africa’s new source of hope lies in harnessing Demographic Dividend, which may create a window of economic opportunity as fertility levels decrease if the correct policies and programmes are put in place. It has been shown that the health status of young people should be optimal for the realisation of the demographic dividend. This study examined the association between poverty and the health status and health seeking behaviour of young women (15–25), using the Demographic Health surveys of Nigeria 2013, Malawi 2015–2016, and South Africa 2015–2016. Interest variables were household and community-levels of poverty, while the outcomes were pregnancy and HIV testing and health services seeking. Results showed that in Malawi only household poverty was associated with a higher likelihood of pregnancy, while in South Africa household- and community-levels of poverty were associated with a higher likelihood of pregnancy. In Nigeria, household- and community-levels of poverty were not significantly linked to pregnancy but were associated with a lower likelihood of HIV testing and health seeking behaviour. The study shows empirical evidence of the construction of negative health outcomes in poor households and communities in Nigeria, Malawi, and South Africa. Therefore, if the demographic dividend is to be a reality in the near future, it is imperative to ensure that poverty-alleviation urgently occurs.

Keywords: demographic dividend; poverty; reproductive health; HIV; health seeking behaviour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14189/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/21/14189/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:21:p:14189-:d:958102

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().