The Influence of Education, Religion, and Wealth on Health-Related Outcomes, Behaviors and Decision-Making in North Africa: A Demographic and Health Study
John Isaac Ph.D., Calvin T Sung, Tri Tran, Erica Hwang

Abstract
Using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) administered in Egypt, this quantitative comparative study examines whether independent variables such as educational attainment, religion, and wealth index significantly affected independent variables of health-related decisions and outcomes such as termination of pregnancy, blood pressure, and infant mortality. Literature will be utilized to discuss the political history, location, convergence of religion, and the Coptic ethnicity of Egypt in order to establish the existence of dichotomous cultural influences that will translate into a better understanding of the independent variables studied. Egypt’s developmental index and gender equality rankings will also be analyzed. The DHS data for Egypt will be coded and analyzed separately using SPSS and subsequently calculated by ANOVAs and logistic regressions to identify statistical significance between the independent and dependent variables. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between lower education and wealth and increased infant mortality and termination of pregnancy.

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