Nohora Forero-Ramirez1, Luis F Gamboa1, Arjun Bedi2, Robert Sparrow3. 1. Department of Economics, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia. 2. International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherlands, bedi@iss.nl. 3. Arndt-Corden Department of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of prenatal care (PNC) on the level and distribution of child stunting in three Andean countries-Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru-where expanding access to such care has been an explicit policy intervention to tackle child malnutrition in utero and during early childhood. METHODS: An econometric analysis of cross-sectional Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data was conducted. The analysis included ordinary least-squares (OLS) regressions, estimates of concentration curves, and decompositions of a concentration index. RESULTS: The analysis shows that the use of PNC in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru is only weakly associated with a reduction in the level of child malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Further expansion of PNC programs is unlikely to play a large role in reducing inequalities in malnutrition.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of prenatal care (PNC) on the level and distribution of child stunting in three Andean countries-Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru-where expanding access to such care has been an explicit policy intervention to tackle childmalnutrition in utero and during early childhood. METHODS: An econometric analysis of cross-sectional Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data was conducted. The analysis included ordinary least-squares (OLS) regressions, estimates of concentration curves, and decompositions of a concentration index. RESULTS: The analysis shows that the use of PNC in Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru is only weakly associated with a reduction in the level of childmalnutrition. CONCLUSIONS: Further expansion of PNC programs is unlikely to play a large role in reducing inequalities in malnutrition.