Nutritional status and access to clean fuels: Evidence from South Asia

Indoor air pollution due to solid fuels is among the ten most important risk factors in global burden of disease leading to respiratory diseases, anaemia, blindness and other disorders. This study examines the correlations between fuel choice and the nutritional status of children. We also explore if factors such as income, kitchen location and education play any role in conditioning fuel choice. Our results suggest that the choice and use of fuel has long lasting effects on the growth and health of children. It is also associated with a higher frequency of respiratory disorders. We find that agricultural households predominantly use unclean fuels.malnutrition, stunting, indoor air pollution, fuel choice, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy, International Development,

Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on Health and Nutrition

This study examines the impact of conditional cash transfers (CCTs) for on sex ratios, health and nutrition of children. The main hypothesis is that CCTs may alter the perceived economic value of girls relative to boys, leading to more favorable sex ratios and better nutrition. Several studies have tried to explain the puzzling persistence of malnutrition inspite of rapid increases in economic growth and the reasons range from decreases in physical activity (Deaton and Dreze 2009) to the “South Asian Enigma” (Ramalingaswami, et al, 1997). The “South Asian enigma” underscores gender disparities as the main reason for the poor nutritional status despite high growth (Smith et al, 2003). We use data from the National Family Health Surveys (NFHS 2005-06 and 2015-16) to explore if cash transfer schemes for education make a positive and significant difference to sex ratios, nutrition and health seeking behavior. Our results suggest that cash transfer schemes have a positive but moderate impact on nutrition among eligible and non-eligible households, a positive impact on health seeking behaviors and that there are regional variations related to the implementation of the schem

Short Term Investment in Agriculture: Is there a Gender Bias?

Most developing countries strive to improve agricultural productivity by relaxing credit constraints, supplying better inputs, improving marketing and distribution. However the efficacy of these reforms needs to be examined in the context of the behavioral responses of farming households. This study examines gender biases within households that affect short-term investments in agriculture. The study utilizes data from ICRISATs village level studies in India (1975-85) to highlight the effects of child gender on the use of agricultural inputs. The main finding is that households with boys tend to use purchased inputs such as fertilizers and insecticides more intensively compared with households with girls. In general, household with boys also tend to have larger land holdings, and use animal and human labor to a greater extent than household with girls.Agricultural and Food Policy,

EFFECTS AND DETERMINANTS OF MILD UNDERWEIGHT AMONG PRESCHOOL CHILDREN ACROSS COUNTRIES AND OVER TIME

Research on malnutrition typically focuses on severe cases, where anthropometric status falls below or above an extreme threshold. Such categorization is necessary for clinicians since mild cases may not justify intervention, but researchers could find that changes in mild malnutrition convey valuable information about mortality risk and health status. This paper focuses on changes in both mild and severe underweight in young children, as measured by 130 DHS surveys for 53 countries over a period from 1986 to 2007. We find that counting variance in all forms of underweight provides closer correlations with aggregate health outcomes (the underfive child mortality rate), and is more closely correlated to several influences of malnutrition (national income, gender equality and agricultural output). We conclude that the full distribution of nutritional status deserves greater attention, including in this case the prevalence of mild underweight among preschool children in developing countries.Underweight, weight-for-height, wasting, child mortality, FGT measures, DHS data

The distribution of child nutritional status across countries and over time

Malnutrition is manifested in various degrees of under- and over-nutrition, with differences and rapid changes in prevalence and severity. In 2000 persistence of underweight caused an annual loss of about 138 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The worldwide effect of high body mass index was linked to a loss of 33 million DALYs (WHO 2002). Standard measures of a population’s nutritional status, based on the “headcount” number of people exceeding specific thresholds for under-and overweight, do not account for differences at other levels of bodyweight, whether at the extremes or within the “normal” range. Nutritional status captured with a crude measure like bodyweight, is a continuous rather than a discrete variable, and changes at every level are correlated with changes in health risks. So, simple headcounts of the fraction of people exceeding a threshold leave much to be desired. This dissertation introduces a new approach to characterizing the distribution of a population’s nutritional status. Recently, continuous measures from economics that go beyond “headcounts” by considering severity beyond the threshold have been applied to monitor nutritional status (Sahn and Stifel, 2002; Jolliffe, 2004; Madden, 2006; Sahn, 2007). I draw upon the poverty literature to construct Foster-Greer-Thorbecke measures for the incidence and severity of under- and overweight, based on deviations in either direction from the median of a healthy population. I apply these measures to the nutritional status of over 400,000 preschool children, using 130 DHS surveys covering 53 countries from 1986 to 2006. Unlike conventional threshold-based methods, the new approach counts changes in every child’s bodyweight. Regressions of the weight-for-height FGT measures on real income, agricultural productivity, gender equality and income equality indicate that the new measures are more sensitive. When testing these variables’ influence on nutritional status, estimated coefficients are two to three times when using the new measure. In my sample, real income and gender equality are crucial to the nutritional status of pre-school children perhaps more than income inequality. Since health risks vary with body weight throughout the normal range and in the extremes, sub-threshold levels of under- and over-nutrition should be included in measures of malnutrition

Nutritional status and access to clean fuels: Evidence from South Asia

Indoor air pollution due to solid fuels is among the ten most important risk factors in global burden of disease leading to respiratory diseases, anaemia, blindness and other disorders. This study examines the correlations between fuel choice and the nutritional status of children. We also explore if factors such as income, kitchen location and education play any role in conditioning fuel choice. Our results suggest that the choice and use of fuel has long lasting effects on the growth and health of children. It is also associated with a higher frequency of respiratory disorders. We find that agricultural households predominantly use unclean fuels

Food Subsidies and Nutritional Status: Evidence from ICRISAT Data

This paper attempts to assess if provision of subsidized food via India’s largest safety net, the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), has improved calorie availability in dry land areas of India. Changes in relative prices may increase calorie intakes from the subsidized commodities, or induce a substitution away from inexpensive and calorie rich foods to more expensive foods. We use ICRISAT data from 2010-2012 to examine the impact of rice & wheat subsidies on calorie availability and compare it with equivalent increases in income from any other source. Our results suggest that food subsidies have a modest but positive impact on calorie intakes of households, but these differ by income group. Due to the subsidy, households increase calories from both subsidized and expensive sources of calories viz. meat, sugar and oils. Crop production affects calorie availability. We also find that that the in-kind transfer seems to be less effective than equivalent increases in incom