Children's multidimensional health and medium-term cognitive skills in low- and middle-income countries
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Aurino, E
Burchi, F
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This article engages in the debate on the effects of early childhood health and children’s cognition at preschool and school ages in low- and middle-income countries. On the basis of three rounds of the ‘Young Lives’ panel, it endorses a multidimensional approach to health. A ‘suite of indicators’ of malnutrition and morbidity, and a composite Multidimensional Health Poverty Index (MHPI) are used to measure health. Expanding the informational basis for measuring health helped to capture variations in children’s medium-term cognitive outcomes more effectively. Beyond stunting, our empirical analysis shows that acute malnutrition is an important predictor of children’s lifecourse learning in India, while it has minor or no effects in the other countries. The composite MHPI is also significantly associated with later cognition; however, it is substantially less informative than the suite of indicators. Finally, the article explores some potential channels through which the relationship between early health and mid-term cognitive abilities operates.
Date Issued
2017-05-19
Date Acceptance
2016-03-01
Citation
The European Journal of Development Research, 2017, 29 (2), pp.289-311
ISSN
0957-8811
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Start Page
289
End Page
311
Journal / Book Title
The European Journal of Development Research
Volume
29
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes 2016
Subjects
Social Sciences
Planning & Development
Public Administration
child health
cognition
nutrition
multidimensional poverty
cross-country
longitudinal
EARLY-CHILDHOOD NUTRITION
LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
GUATEMALAN ADULTS
EDUCATION
UNDERNUTRITION
CONSEQUENCES
MALNUTRITION
ACHIEVEMENT
CONTEXT
Development Studies
1402 Applied Economics
1604 Human Geography
1608 Sociology
Publication Status
Published