The impact of HIV on children's education in eastern Zimbabwe

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of vulnerable and non-vulnerable children (aged 6–17) in round five (2009–2011) of the Manicaland survey.

	Non-vulnerable (n: 2518, 55.0%)	HIV+ child (n: 94, 2.1%)	HIV+ parent (not ill) (n: 585, 12.8%)	HIV+ parent (ill) (n: 178, 3.9%)	Young carer (n: 86, 1.9%)	Maternal orphan (n: 727, 15.9%)	Paternal orphan (n: 1406, 30.7%)	Double orphan (n: 483, 10.6%)
Average age	12.4	12.5	12.7	12.8	14.4	13.6	13.4	13.9
Percent male	49.3%	53.2%	48.6%	49.4%	41.9%	48.8%	49.6%	50.1%
Site type
Town	13.9%	18.1%	17.6%	19.1%	15.1%	18.0%	15.7%	17.2%
Commercial estate	23.9%	11.7%	25.0%	22.5%	27.9%	17.1%	18.4%	15.9%
Subsistence farming	42.4%	50%	35.6%	36.0%	39.5%	39.3%	42.0%	42.7%
Roadside trading centre	19.8%	20.2%	21.9%	22.5%	17.4%	25.6%	23.8%	24.2%
Average SES	0.33	0.33	0.31	0.30	0.29	0.31	0.29	0.30
Percent receiving external support
Any form of support	10.5%	17.0%	15.2%	16.3%	23.3%	14.4%	14.4%	14.7%
Education support	1.1%	4.3%	4.4%	7.3%	14.0%	4.4%	4.6%	4.6%

Note: Percentages of vulnerable and non-vulnerable children do not add up to 100% as some children are in more than one category of vulnerability.

Table 2. Associations between measures of childhood vulnerability and education outcomes in data from youth (aged 15–24 years) pooled over five survey rounds (1998–2011).

	Correct grade for age (ages 15–20)			Completed primary (ages 15–24)			5+ O level passes (ages 16–24)
	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p
HIV+^a	1177/1370 (85.9%)	0.87 (0.32–2.35)	0.78	1674/1754 (95.4%)	0.75 (0.12–4.56)	0.75	70/1,596 (4.4%)	0.48 (0.12–2.00)	0.32
HIV+ parent
Parent not ill	892/1260 (70.8%)	1.23 (0.90–1.70)	0.20	1346/2137 (96.3%)	1.16 (0.55–2.44)	0.70	168/1,729 (9.7%)	1.45 (0.91–2.33)	0.12
Parent ill	946/1356 (69.8%)	0.88 (0.60–1.28)	0.67	2405/2505 (96.0%)	1.03 (0.57–1.86)	0.93	217/2,089 (10.4%)	1.42 (0.80–2.50)	0.23
Young carer	1448/2184 (66.3%)	1.25 (0.95–1.64)	0.10	7858/8160 (96.3%)	0.92 (0.59–1.44)	0.71	795/5,519 (14.4%)	1.11 (0.85–1.45)	0.46
Orphanhood^b
Maternal orphan	2483/3641 (68.2%)	0.83 (0.65–1.06)	0.14	6097/6351 (96.0%)	0.44 (0.29–0.67)	<0.01	418/5,468 (7.6%)	0.93 (0.66–1.31)	0.68
Paternal orphan	3155/4586 (68.8%)	0.99 (0.81–1.19)	0.90	8705/9042 (96.3%)	0.59 (0.40–0.86)	<0.01	522/6,914 (7.5%)	1.00 (0.74–1.34)	0.98
Double orphan	3034/4429 (68.5%)	0.85 (0.67–1.10)	0.22	7701/8015 (96.1%)	0.47 (0.31–0.71)	<0.01	510/6,740 (7.6%)	0.90 (0.62–1.32)	0.60

Note: Odds ratios are adjusted for age, sex, round, SES and site type, with household and individual (to account for repeat measurements) random effects.

n/N: number of youth who have attained the education outcome/total number of youth included in each analysis (NB: N differs for each analysis due to different response rates for the questions on the vulnerability categories).

^a Ages 15–17, rounds 4 and 5 only.

^b Ages 15–20.

Table 3. Associations between measures of childhood vulnerability and education outcomes in children in most recent survey round (2009–2011).

	Correct grade for age (ages 8–17)			Primary attendance (ages 6–12)			Secondary attendance (ages 13–17)
	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p	n/N (%)	AOR (95% CI)	p
HIV+	1632/1995 (81.8%)	0.77 (0.38–1.56)	0.47	1115/1216 (91.7%)	0.88 (0.14–5.53)	0.89	481/729 (66.0%)	1.67 (0.43–6.48)	0.46
HIV+ parent
Parent not ill	544/684 (79.5%)	1.19 (0.73–1.93)	0.49	N/A^a			184/259 (71.0%)	1.04 (0.56–1.95)	0.89
Parent ill	488/645 (75.6%)	0.75 (0.43–1.31)	0.32	173/194 (89.2%)	0.47 (0.05–4.73)	0.52	177/257 (68.9%)	1.23 (0.55–2.76)	0.61
Young carer	1044/1265 (82.5%)	0.83 (0.43–1.59)	0.57	1096/1195 (91.7%)	0.73 (0.06–9.56)	0.81	519/623 (83.3%)	0.47 (0.25–0.89)	0.02
Orphanhood
Maternal orphan	1979/2453 (80.7%)	0.67 (0.51–0.88)	<0.01	1299/1409 (92.2%)	1.59 (0.53–4.75)	0.41	637/922 (69.1%)	0.77 (0.52–1.12)	0.17
Paternal orphan	2377/2967 (80.1%)	0.67 (0.60–0.96)	0.02	1514/1644 (92.1%)	1.16 (0.57–2.36)	0.68	769/1114 (69.0%)	0.80 (0.57–1.12)	0.19
Double orphan	2306/2890 (79.8%)	0.68 (0.49–0.93)	0.02	1487/1613 (92.2%)	1.63 (0.50–5.31)	0.42	744/1088 (68.4%)	0.73 (0.46–1.16)	0.18

Note: Odds ratios are adjusted for age, sex, SES and site type, with household random effects.

n/N: number of youth who have attained the education outcome/total number of youth included in each analysis (NB: N differs for each analysis due to different response rates for the questions on the vulnerability categories).

^a No children in comparison group who do not attend school regularly.

Figure 1. Unadjusted differences in percentage of children who have completed primary school (1a) and who are in the correct grade for age (1b) as a function of orphanhood status, compared to children unaffected by the HIV-epidemic.