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  • Title: Teaching mothers to read: evidence from Colombia on the key role of maternal education in preschool child nutritional health.
    Author: Lomperis AM.
    Journal: J Dev Areas; 1991 Oct; 26(1):25-52. PubMed ID: 12317258.
    Abstract:
    The determinants of the severity of childhood malnutrition among a low income population in Cali, Colombia in 1974-76 were examined. Sections are devoted to the welfare maximization and household production model and methodology, the data set, the empirical results, the policy implications, and conclusions. The nutritional health of each preschooler is produced within the household with goods and time inputs (food, environmental sanitation, medical care, time invested in child care, and breastfeeding), and is conditioned by the state of household production technology (mother's literacy as a dummy variable -- version 1, and mother's level of schooling -- version 2) as well as by each child's sex, birth order, age, household size, and sociocultural setting. Constraints are total available income and time available (dummy variable). Reinhardt's version of the translog function is used to represent the production process. Household survey data were made available from a pilot study of a maternal and child health program (PRIMOPS) and includes 421 preschool children and 280 households, and food expenditure data for 197 children and 123 households. The main finding is that teaching Third World mothers to read holds the greatest promise of permanently improving the nutritional status of preschool children. The linear regression results show that the determinants of short-term nutritional status as reflected in weight for age (w/a) are the duration of breastfeeding, literacy, 1-3 years of schooling, and the available food in the household. The levels of significance are higher for version 2, but significance is achieved only with the lower levels of schooling. Birth order is statistically significant but weak and negative; i.e., higher birth orders are at higher risk of malnutrition. Long-term nutritional status is statistically significantly influenced by educational level, birth order, and food available, where older preschoolers are likely to experience stunting but not necessarily wasting. The last born suffers the most nutritionally. The proportion of time spent in child rearing vs. employment results needs further clarification. Breastfeeding effects are largely short term. Of the factors affecting children's nutritional status, the data show that food transfer approaches are not the most cost-effective means for solving chronic malnutrition. Implementing literacy programs would be a more successful strategy and lasts a lifetime. Breastfeeding must be for at least 4 months and preferably a year to show a significant improvement in nutrition, and does not eliminate the risk of malnutrition. Smaller families produce healthier children. A mother, who works part time or greater, increases income potential to provide for nutritional need; income and other factors such as literacy are critical determinants of preschool nutritional well being as supported by the findings of Wolfe and Behrman.
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