Universal birth registration is a human right and monitoring inequalities in coverage are a useful tool to identify vulnerable groups and to promote change. Within-country inequalities in birth registration coverage have been documented according to wealth, place of residence and other household characteristics.

Our goal was to provide a comprehensive, global view of how the sex of heads of household might affect birth registration coverage in 93 low- and middle-income countries. Using data from nationally-representative surveys, we grouped households into three categories: a) male headed households (MHH), b) female headed households (FHH) with at least one adult male; and c) FHH without an adult male.

Although we identified that FHH without male tended to be poorer than the other groups, we did not find any systematic differences among the three categories in terms of birth registration coverage, suggesting that other factors such as women’s ability to allocate household resources to their children in FHH, may explain why this vulnerable group has managed to offset a potential disadvantage to their children.

You can access the full paper at: BMC Public Health