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Effects and determinants of mild underweight among preschool children across countries and over time

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  • Bhagowalia, Priya
  • Chen, Susan E.
  • Masters, William A.

Abstract

Research on malnutrition typically focuses on extreme cases which pose the greatest individual health risks, but researchers comparing populations might find that variation in mild malnutrition conveys valuable information about public health. This paper constructs and compares new measures of the prevalence, depth and severity of both mild and extreme underweight in children from three months to three years of age, as measured by 130 DHS surveys for 53 countries over a period from 1986 to 2006. We find that variance in mild underweight has a larger and more robust correlation with child mortality than variance in severe underweight, and is itself more closely correlated with local agricultural output, over a wide range of regression specifications. We conclude that the prevalence of mild underweight deserves greater attention as a useful signal of changing public health conditions among preschool children in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhagowalia, Priya & Chen, Susan E. & Masters, William A., 2011. "Effects and determinants of mild underweight among preschool children across countries and over time," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 66-77, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:9:y:2011:i:1:p:66-77
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    4. Gross, Jeremie & Guirkinger, Catherine & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2020. "Buy as you need: Nutrition and food storage imperfections," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    5. Marisol Garzón & Luís Pereira-da-Silva & Jorge Seixas & Ana Luísa Papoila & Marta Alves, 2018. "Subclinical Enteric Parasitic Infections and Growth Faltering in Infants in São Tomé, Africa: A Birth Cohort Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, April.
    6. Yongqing Dong & Quheng Deng & Shaoping Li, 2022. "The Health Inequality of Children in China: A Regression-Based Decomposition Analysis," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(1), pages 137-159, February.
    7. Milinda Lakkam & Stefan Wager & Paul H Wise & Lawrence M Wein, 2014. "Quantifying and Exploiting the Age Dependence in the Effect of Supplementary Food for Child Undernutrition," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-10, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Underweight Weight-for-height Child mortality Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures DHS data;

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • Q18 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Policy; Food Policy; Animal Welfare Policy

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