IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/80663.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Dietary pattern, socioeconomic status and child health outcomes in Ghana: application of multilevel analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Nunoo, Jacob
  • Nyanzu, Frederick

Abstract

Introduction – Child welfare, especially issues bordering on child health, continues to be one of the core issues of development. Over the years, appreciable progress has been made, but the levels are still not good enough. Objective - This paper investigates the effects of mothers’ socioeconomic characteristics and regional effect on the health of the child. Also, the paper employs a multilevel estimation technique, a methodology that distinguishes this study from previous studies to investigate in detail, the sources of variation in child health for appropriate policy recommendations Design/methodology/approach - This study revisits the issue on the determinants of child health using the 2012 Ghana version of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, with a sample size of 7364, to investigate how infant diet practices impact child health in Ghana. We estimate the impact of dietary pattern and other socioeconomic characteristics and regional effect on child anthropometric indicators using the multilevel estimation technique to control for clustering effect. Results - We found a dietary pattern to have a positive impact on child health. In addition, we realised that both mother characteristics and regional effect play a role in the growth of the child, but mother characteristics seem the most driving force when mother effects and regional effect are set at play. Conclusion - It is recommended that parents should adhere to the appropriate diet requirement for their children to better health outcome. Also, it is imperative for policies to be geared towards parents as a first step in ensuring a better child health. In addition, policies and programmes directed to the three Northern regions of Ghana are very crucial in supporting a positive child health development for children in Ghana.

Suggested Citation

  • Nunoo, Jacob & Nyanzu, Frederick, 2017. "Dietary pattern, socioeconomic status and child health outcomes in Ghana: application of multilevel analysis," MPRA Paper 80663, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80663
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/80663/1/MPRA_paper_80663.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Novignon, Jacob & Nonvignon, Justice & Mussa, Richard, 2015. "The poverty and inequality nexus in Ghana: a decomposition analysis of household expenditure components," MPRA Paper 63017, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Samuel Kobina Annim & Katsushi S. Imai, 2014. "Nutritional Status of Children, Food Consumption Diversity and Ethnicity in Lao PDR," Economics Discussion Paper Series 1404, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    3. Kana Fuse, 2010. "Variations in attitudinal gender preferences for children across 50 less-developed countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 23(36), pages 1031-1048.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Valentine Becquet & Nicolás Sacco & Ignacio Pardo, 2022. "Disparities in Gender Preference and Fertility: Southeast Asia and Latin America in a Comparative Perspective," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(3), pages 1295-1323, June.
    2. Ashwini Sebastian & Ana Paula de la O Campos & Silvio Daidone & Noemi Pace & Benjamin Davis & Ousmane Niang & Luca Pellerano, 2019. "Cash Transfers and Gender Differentials in Child Schooling and Labor: Evidence from the Lesotho Child Grants Programme," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 45(S1), pages 181-208, December.
    3. Agyen, Vida Afarebea & Annim, Samuel Kobina & Asmah, Emmanuel Ekow, 2024. "Neighbourhood mothers’ education and its differential impact on stunting: Evidence from 30 Sub-Saharan African countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    4. Kate Hampshire & Mwenza Blell & Bob Simpson, 2012. "Navigating New Socio-Demographic Landscapes: Using Anthropological Demography to Understand the ‘Persistence’ of High and Early Fertility Among British Pakistanis [Explorer les nouveaux paysages so," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 28(1), pages 39-63, February.
    5. Kathryn Yount & Sarah Zureick-Brown & Nafisa Halim & Kayla LaVilla, 2014. "Fertility Decline, Girls’ Well-being, and Gender Gaps in Children’s Well-being in Poor Countries," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 535-561, April.
    6. Kumar, Alok & Kober, Brianne, 2012. "Urbanization, human capital, and cross-country productivity differences," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 14-17.
    7. Ankita Mishra & Jaai Parasnis, 2022. "Intentions for a third child: The role of parental sex composition preferences," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 472-487, August.
    8. Yi Zeng & Linda George & Melanie Sereny & Danan Gu & James W. Vaupel, 2015. "Older parents enjoy better filial piety and care from daughters than sons in China," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2015-012, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    9. Clifford Odimegwu & Marifa Muchemwa & Joshua O. Akinyemi, 2023. "Systematic review of multilevel models involving contextual characteristics in African demographic research," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 1-29, June.
    10. Harttgen, Kenneth & Lang, Stefan & Seiler, Johannes, 2019. "Selective mortality and the anthropometric status of children in low- and middle-income countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 257-273.
    11. Collins, Matthew, 2022. "Sibling Gender, Inheritance Customs and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Matrilineal and Patrilineal Societies," Working Papers 2022:5, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    12. Michel Garenne & Nancy Stiegler, 2023. "Parental sex-preferences in South Africa: culture and family composition," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Boonaert, Eva & Hoyweghen, Kaat Van & Feyisa, Ashenafi Duguma & Goos, Peter & Maertens, Miet, 2021. "Twofold Gendered Preferences in the Quantity-Quality Trade-Off Impact the Demographic Transition in Ethiopia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315224, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Kenneth Harttgen & Stefan Lang & Johannes Seiler, 2017. "Selective mortality and undernutrition in low- and middle-income countries," Working Papers 2017-27, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck, revised Aug 2018.
    15. Pena-Boquete, Yolanda & Samambayeva, Aizhan & Zhumakanova, Aigerim & Makhmejanov, Galym, 2019. "Determinants of child mortality risk in Kazakhstan," MPRA Paper 97328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Lamichhane, Kamal & Watanabe, Takayuki, 2015. "The Effect of Disability and Gender on Returns to the Investment in Education: A Case from Metro Manilla of the Philippines," Working Papers 103, JICA Research Institute.
    17. Clifford O. Odimegwu & Joshua O. Akinyemi & Nicole Wet, 2017. "Premarital birth, children’s sex composition and marital instability among women in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 327-346, December.
    18. Qianqian Shang & Quanbao Jiang & Yongkun Yin, 2022. "How Does Children's Sex Affect Parental Sex Preference: Preference Adaptation and Learning," Working Papers wp2022_2202, CEMFI.
    19. Li-Chung Hu & Yi-Lin Chiang, 2021. "Having Children in a Time of Lowest-Low Fertility: Value of Children, Sex Preference and Fertility Desire among Taiwanese Young Adults," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(2), pages 537-554, April.
    20. Eleonora Mussino & Vitor Miranda & Li Ma, 2019. "Transition to third birth among immigrant mothers in Sweden: Does having two daughters accelerate the process?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 81-109, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Child Health Outcome; Dietary Pattern; Socioeconomic Status; Multilevel Analysis; Ghana;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:80663. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.