Reducing child malnutrition in Nigeria: combined effects of income growth and provision of information about mothers' access to health care services.
Using a sample of 1359 Nigerian households from the 2003 Demographic and Health Surveys, this article investigates the contribution of improved maternal information about access to community health services toward the reduction of child stunting and undernourishment. The analysis shows that family wealth and region-specific knowledge about community health care access positively affects child nutrition status measured by height-for-age and weight-for-age. However, these nutrition gains can be reinforced or tempered by differences in mother's education and/or her access to community health services. These findings suggest that interventions which enhance public knowledge about availability and access to health care could strengthen more general development-oriented child nutrition-enhancing interventions, such as poverty reduction or growth in health services infrastructure.
Pennsylvania State University, Economics, 3000 lvyside, Altoona, PA 16601, USA. mda4@psu.edu
Mark D
MD
Agee
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D002662:Child Health Services; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D036262:Empirical Research; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007223:Infant; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D009752:Nutritional Status; D055815:Young Adult