scholarly journals Health Returns to Birth Weight: Evidence from Developing Countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Vaibhav Keshav

This paper explores the effect of birth weight on a series of anthropometric outcomes among children. We use a panel of individual-level data from 39 developing countries covering the years 1999-2018 and attempt to solve the Endogeneity using mother fixed effect and twin fixed-effect strategies. The results suggest that improvements in birth weight result in statistically and economically significant improvements in children's anthropometric outcomes. An additional 100 grams birth weight is associated with a 0.43 and 0.25 units increase in weight for age percentile and height for age percentile, respectively. The links are stronger among low educated mothers and poorer households. The observed protective effect of birth weight on infant mortality suggests that the true effects of birth weight on children’s outcomes are larger and that the estimated effects probably understate the true effects.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Udeni De Silva Perera ◽  
Brett A. Inder

Abstract Background: High rates of child malnutrition are a major public health concern in developing countries, particularly among vulnerable communities. Midday meals programs can be effective for combatting childhood malnutrition among older children. However, their use in early childhood is not well documented, particularly within South Asia. Anthropometric measures and other socioeconomic data were collected for children below the age of five years living in selected Sri Lankan tea plantations, to assess the effectiveness of midday meals as a nutrition intervention for improving growth among young children.Methods: The study exploits a natural experiment whereby the provision of the midday meals program is exogenously determined at the plantation level, resulting in comparable treatment and control groups. Longitudinal data is regularly collected on heights and weights of children, between 2013-2015. Standardized weight-for-age, height-for-age, BMI-for-age and weight-for-height are calculated following WHO guidelines, and binary variables for stunting, wasting and underweight are constructed. All modelling uses STATA SE 15. Random-effects regression with instrumental variables is used for modelling standardized growth variables whilst random-effects logistic regression is used for binary outcome variables. Robustness analysis involves different estimation methods and subsamples. Results: The dataset consists of longitudinal data from a total of 1279 children across three tea plantations in Sri Lanka, with 799 children in the treatment group and 480 in the control group. Results show significant positive effects of access to the midday meals program, on the growth of children. A child with access to the midday meals intervention reports an average standardized weight-for-age 0.03 (±0.01) and height-for-age 0.05 (±0.01) units higher than a similar child without access to the intervention. Importantly, access to the intervention reduces the likelihood of being underweight by 0.45 and the likelihood of wasting by 0.47. The results are robust to different model estimations and across different subsamples by gender, birthweight and birth-year cohort. Qualitative data analysis suggests a high viability of implementing similar programs within tea plantations in Sri Lanka.Conclusions: Midday meals programs targeting early childhood can be an effective intervention to address high rates of child malnutrition, particularly among vulnerable communities in developing countries like Sri Lanka.


2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1505-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria de Fátima Alves Vieira ◽  
Alexandre Arcanjo Ferraro ◽  
Maria Helena do Nascimento Souza ◽  
Maria Tereza B Fernandes ◽  
Ana Lydia Sawaya

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate nutritional recovery patterns in 106 undernourished children assisted by the Center of Nutritional Recovery and Education (CREN, in Portuguese) between January 1995 and December 1999.DesignCREN assists undernourished children aged 0 to 72 months living in the southern regions of Sao Paulo, in an outpatient setting. Nutritional status was assessed by Z-scores of weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height. Nutritional recovery evaluation considered Z-score gains in weight-for-age and height-for-age, grouping into four categories (Z-score increment of 0·50 between groups). Children with birth weight less than 2500 g were classified as low birth weight (LBW), while those born at term and with LBW were classified as small for gestational age.SettingCREN (Center of Nutritional Recovery and Education in Portuguese), Sao Paulo, Brazil.SubjectsOne hundred and six children from CREN.ResultsAmong the 106 evaluated children, ninety-eight (92·5 %) recovered their weight or height and seventy-two (67·9 %) recovered both. Nearly half of studied children presented a nutritional recovery (increase in Z-score) of more than 0·50 in height-for-age (46·2 %) and about 40 % in weight-for-age (38·7 %). Multivariate analysis showed that treatment duration and initial weight-for-age contributed to weight-for-age Z-score increment, explaining 25 % of the variation; and treatment duration, initial height-for-age and weight-for-age Z-score increment contributed to height-for-age Z-score increment, explaining 62 % of the variation.ConclusionsOur findings show that nutritional recovery among children who attended CREN was influenced primarily by the degree of nutritional deficit at admission. It has also been shown that biological variables are more important than socio-economic status in determining the rate of nutritional recovery.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-46
Author(s):  
Poly Begum ◽  
Md Kamrul Hassan ◽  
Aloke Kumar Saha ◽  
Tahmina Akter ◽  
Mahmuda Afrin

Low birth weight (LBW) is one of the main predictors of infant mortality. The global incidence of LBW is around 17%, although estimates vary from 19% in the developing countries like Bangladesh to 5-7% in the developed countries. About one third of delivery is low birth weight. LBW is generally associated with situations in which uterine malnutrition is produced due to alterations in placental circulation. There are many known risk factors, the most important of which are socio-economic factors, medical risks before or during gestation and maternal lifestyles. However, although interventions exist to prevent many of these factors before and during pregnancy, the incidence of LBW has not decreased.Faridpur Med. Coll. J. Jan 2017;12(1): 40-46


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Gietel-Basten ◽  
Georgia Verropoulou ◽  
Rachel Ganly

Currently, very little is known about regional patterns of infant mortality rates [IMR] – or mortality more generally – in the Russian Empire during, and before, the mid-nineteenth century. In particular, what studies have been performed generally rely on the reproduction of aggregate statistics, rather than being based on individual-level data. The objective of this study is to (a) identify the extent to which registration is complete in a part of the historical Russian region of Bessarabia for the period 1833-1885 and, then, (b) identify trends of IMR in a part of the historical Russian region of Bessarabia for the period 1833-1885. The study utilises church records of births (N=21,984) and deaths (N=7,194) from the German colony of Glückstal, a village near modern-day Grigoriopol in Transnistria (Moldova). Three methods of calculating IMR are performed. While there appears to be a significant degree of under-reporting of births which is inconsistent over time as well as gaps in the data more generally, it is possible to account for much of this through adjustment post linkage. After accounting for this, a linked net IMR can be generated. The range over the period is around 100- 190, with some periods of crisis mortality. These figures are lower than has been reported for the region. The comparison of different methods of calculating IMRs suggest that birth registration may be incomplete, however. This means that nominative linkage is required to derive accurate rates and other statistics. The findings challenge the widely held view of very high IMRs across the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. By utilising appropriate methods, this analysis suggests that such colony church records may represent a valuable source for further analysis of this neglected period in Russian demographic history.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Udeni De Silva Perera ◽  
Brett A. Inder

Abstract Background High rates of child malnutrition are a major public health concern in developing countries, particularly among vulnerable communities. Midday meals programs can be effective for combatting childhood malnutrition among older children. However, their use in early childhood is not well documented, particularly within South Asia. Anthropometric measures and other socioeconomic data were collected for children below the age of 5 years living in selected Sri Lankan tea plantations, to assess the effectiveness of midday meals as a nutrition intervention for improving growth among young children. Methods The study exploits a natural experiment whereby the provision of the midday meals program is exogenously determined at the plantation level, resulting in comparable treatment and control groups. Longitudinal data was collected on heights and weights of children, between 2013 and 2015. Standardized weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height, and binary variables for stunting, wasting and underweight are constructed, following WHO guidelines. All modelling uses STATA SE 15. Random-effects regression with instrumental variables is used for modelling standardized growth while random-effects logistic regression is used for the binary outcomes. Robustness analysis involves different estimation methods and subsamples. Results The dataset comprises of longitudinal data from a total of 1279 children across three tea plantations in Sri Lanka, with 799 children in the treatment group and 480 in the control group. Results show significant positive effects of access to the midday meals program, on the growth of children. A child with access to the midday meals intervention reports an average standardized weight-for-age 0.03 (±0.01) and height-for-age 0.05 (±0.01) units higher than a similar child without access to the intervention. Importantly, access to the intervention reduces the likelihood of being underweight by 0.45 and the likelihood of wasting by 0.47. The results are robust to different model specifications and across different subsamples by gender, birthweight and birth-year cohort. Conclusions Midday meals programs targeting early childhood can be an effective intervention to address high rates of child malnutrition, particularly among vulnerable communities in developing countries like Sri Lanka.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Parti ◽  
Sumiati Malik ◽  
Nurhayati

Most causes of infant death are problems that occur in newborn/neonatal (0-28 days old), Low Birth Weight Babies (LBW) is one of the factors which has a contribution to infant mortality, especially in the neonatal period. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) is a benchmark in determining the degree of public health, both at the National and Provincial levels. This study aimed to determine the effect of the Kangaroo Mother Care Method (KMC) on the prevention of hypothermia in low birth weight infants at Morowali District Hospital in 2019. The type of research used was a quasi-experiment. The population is all low birth weight babies born from May to July 2019. The sample in this study was all newborns with low birth weight born from May to July 2019, totaling 30 babies. There is a difference (influence) on the baby's body temperature before and after KMC with a p-value=0,000. The kangaroo mother care can continue to be affiliated considering its benefits for both infants and mothers, as well as increasing the ability of health workers in conducting KMC so that they can provide in-house training for mothers to be carried out at home.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mashkoor Ahmad Lone ◽  
Dr. P. Ganesan

The practice of placing deprived children having least or no emotional and material resources, in orphanages has since long been prevailing in socio -economically poor Asian countries. A sample of 30 children residing in orphanage in district Anantnag in the age group of 13-18 years was selected for the present study. Most of the children were found socially and psychologically disturbed. As per Indian Academy Paediatrics (IAP) classification with respect to weight for age the condition was not bad that as approximately 67% percent of the children were found to be normal. In the same way height for age as per Waterloo’s classification shown that more than half of the children were normal. On clinical examination approximately 47% of children were normal, while as rest were suffering from dispigmentation of hair, moon face, xerosis of skin cheilosis, magenta tongue, spongy bleeding gums, oedema, conjuctival xerosis, and mottled dental enamel. The findings indicated that nutritional intake was deficient for all nutrients when compared to, Recommended Daily Allowances Chart (RDA) for all age groups which may be linked to poor planning of menus in orphanages.


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