IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wodepe/v33y2024ics2452292923000784.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Household air pollution could make children grow shorter in sub-Saharan Africa; but can households help stem the tide on their own?

Author

Listed:
  • Odame, Michael Larbi
  • Adjei-Mantey, Kwame

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing research interest in the influence of household air pollution on child health. Despite the increasing advocacy for households to switch from the use of polluting cooking fuels due to climate change and health-related concerns, the practice is still prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The intensity of household air pollution exposure and its influence on child stunting and wasting of children is an important, but understudied, cause for public health concern. Identifying the health effects of polluting fuels, for instance, could stimulate a speedy transition to clean energy. This study, therefore, examines the association between the intensity of household air pollution exposure and child stunting and wasting of children using data from the most recent demographic and health surveys (DHS) from 33 countries in SSA using linear probability modeling. Results show that high levels of intensity of air pollution within households are associated with increased stunting probability of 2.9% − 3.2%. The findings highlight a potential negligible cost measure households can adopt to limit the intensity of pollution they are exposed to and consequently, to reduce the faltering growth in children.

Suggested Citation

  • Odame, Michael Larbi & Adjei-Mantey, Kwame, 2024. "Household air pollution could make children grow shorter in sub-Saharan Africa; but can households help stem the tide on their own?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:33:y:2024:i:c:s2452292923000784
    DOI: 10.1016/j.wdp.2023.100562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452292923000784
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.wdp.2023.100562?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Langbein, Jörg & Peters, Jörg & Vance, Colin, 2017. "Outdoor cooking prevalence in developing countries and its implication for clean cooking policies," Ruhr Economic Papers 680, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    2. Haddad, Lawrence J & Bouis, Howarth E, 1991. "The Impact of Nutritional Status on Agricultural Productivity: Wage Evidence from the Philippines," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 53(1), pages 45-68, February.
    3. Marco Pomati & Shailen Nandy, 2020. "Assessing Progress towards SDG2: Trends and Patterns of Multiple Malnutrition in Young Children under 5 in West and Central Africa," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(5), pages 1847-1873, October.
    4. LaFave, Daniel & Beyene, Abebe Damte & Bluffstone, Randall & Dissanayake, Sahan T.M. & Gebreegziabher, Zenebe & Mekonnen, Alemu & Toman, Michael, 2021. "Impacts of improved biomass cookstoves on child and adult health: Experimental evidence from rural Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Blessing J. Akombi & Kingsley E. Agho & John J. Hall & Nidhi Wali & Andre M. N. Renzaho & Dafna Merom, 2017. "Stunting, Wasting and Underweight in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1, August.
    6. Michael Grossman, 1972. "The Demand for Health: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gros72-1.
    7. Deshpande, Ashwini & Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2022. "Early childhood stunting and later life outcomes: A longitudinal analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    8. Bellemare, Marc F. & Novak, Lindsey & Steinmetz, Tara L., 2015. "All in the family: Explaining the persistence of female genital cutting in West Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 252-265.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Durevall, Dick & Isaksson, Ann-Sofie, 2024. "Aid and child health: A disaggregated analysis of the effects of aid on impaired growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harold Alderman & John Hoddinott & Bill Kinsey, 2006. "Long term consequences of early childhood malnutrition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 450-474, July.
    2. Kristina Burström & Magnus Johannesson & Finn Diderichsen, 2003. "The value of the change in health in Sweden 1980/81 to 1996/97," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(8), pages 637-654, August.
    3. Erickson Kevin F. & Winkelmayer Wolfgang C. & Chertow Glenn M. & Bhattacharya Jay, 2014. "Medicare Reimbursement Reform for Provider Visits and Health Outcomes in Patients on Hemodialysis," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 53-77, January.
    4. Lurås, Hilde, 2009. "A healthy lifestyle: The product of opportunities and preferences," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2001:11, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    5. Galama, Titus & Kapteyn, Arie, 2011. "Grossman’s missing health threshold," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1044-1056.
    6. Haddad, Lawrence & Kanbur, Ravi, 1992. "Is There an Intrahousehold Kuznets Curve? Some Evidence from the Philippines," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 47(Supplemen), pages 77-93.
    7. Cawley, John & Markowitz, Sara & Tauras, John, 2004. "Lighting up and slimming down: the effects of body weight and cigarette prices on adolescent smoking initiation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 293-311, March.
    8. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John, 1997. "Health and wages: Evidence on men and women in urban Brazil," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 159-185, March.
    9. Elisabetta De Cao, 2015. "The Height Production Function from Birth to Age Two," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(3), pages 329-363.
    10. Chen, Li-Shiun & Wang, Ping & Yao, Yao, 2018. "Power of personalized smoking cessation: A unified lifecycle framework for policy evaluation," Working Paper Series 20333, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    11. Allen C. Goodman & Miron Stano, 2000. "Hmos and Health Externalities: A Local Public Good Perspective," Public Finance Review, , vol. 28(3), pages 247-269, May.
    12. James J. Heckman, 2015. "Introduction to A Theory of the Allocation of Time by Gary Becker," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(583), pages 403-409, March.
    13. R Todd Jewell & Maximo Rossi & Patricia Triunfo, 2006. "El Estado de Salud de los Jóvenes Uruguayos," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 43(128), pages 235-250.
    14. Takao Kato & Yang Song, 2022. "Advising, gender, and performance: Evidence from a university with exogenous adviser–student gender match," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 121-141, January.
    15. Edem K. Abbuy, 2018. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Infant Mortality in WAEMU Countries: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 5(6), pages 52-60, November.
    16. Carolina Navarro & Luis Ayala & José Labeaga, 2010. "Housing deprivation and health status: evidence from Spain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 555-582, June.
    17. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Janet Currie & Tom Vogl, 2013. "Early-Life Health and Adult Circumstance in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, May.
    19. Hunt-McCool, Janet & Bishop, Dawn M., 1998. "Health economics and the economics of education: specialization and division of labor," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 237-244, June.
    20. Kwame Adjei-Mantey & Charles Yuji Horioka, 2023. "Determinants of health insurance enrollment and health expenditure in Ghana: an empirical analysis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1269-1288, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wodepe:v:33:y:2024:i:c:s2452292923000784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/world-development-perspectives .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.