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The Impact of Child Malnutrition and Health on Cognitive Skills in Ethiopia: Using a Standard Panel Data Analysis

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Poverty and Well-Being in East Africa

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Abstract

Over the past two decades, Ethiopia has made significant progress in key human development indicators. Child mortality and nutrition have improved and primary school enrolments have increased. This study uses longitudinal data of 1813 strong young cohort and 443 of the old cohort—children in five regions in the country over two rounds from the Young Lives Survey. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of child nutrition and health on their cognitive achievements measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) test score using a static panel model. The regression analysis shows that there is a positive association between child nutrition (measured by height-for-age WHO z-scores) and cognitive achievements in all age cohorts. This study also finds that, there are cognitive skill disparities among regions and between sexes and areas of residence. Therefore, the government must give due attention to the importance of nutrition for cognitive and educational development, and these must be integrated as a key component of early childhood care and development programs Since there are regional, residence, and gender disparities in the cognitive skills of the children in each cohort an appropriate nutritional strategy must be developed. In order to achieve long-run human capital development in Ethiopia, all domestic and international nongovernmental organizations have to support and finance the national plan to scale up the nutritional status of children in their early ages.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This 1000-day window is a critical time for structural brain development. Good maternal nutrition is essential; pregnant or breastfeeding mothers who cannot access the right nutrients are more likely to have children with compromised brain development who suffer from poor cognitive performance.

  2. 2.

    The sites were located in five regions/administrative states of the country: Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNP), and Tigray.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Kahsay Berhane Lemma

Authors
  1. Kahsay Berhane Lemma
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Correspondence to Kahsay Berhane Lemma .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Eco., Jönköping Inter. Busi. Sc, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden

    Almas Heshmati

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Tables 1, 2, 3.

Table 1 Summary statistics for young and old cohorts
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Table 2 Summary statistics for old cohort
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Table 3 Summary statistics for young cohort
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Appendix 2

See Tables 4, 5, 6, 7.

Table 4 Unobserved individual heterogeneity test for young cohort, old cohort, and overall
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Table 5 Hausman test based on the difference between RE and FE estimates for overall cohort
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Table 6 Hausman test based on the difference between RE and FE estimates for the old cohort
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Table 7 Hausman test based on the difference between RE and FE estimates for the Young cohort
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Appendix 3

See Tables 8, 9, 10.

Table 8 Random effect estimated results for all cohorts
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Table 9 Random effect estimated results for the old cohort
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Table 10 Random effect estimated results for the Young cohort
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Lemma, K.B. (2016). The Impact of Child Malnutrition and Health on Cognitive Skills in Ethiopia: Using a Standard Panel Data Analysis. In: Heshmati, A. (eds) Poverty and Well-Being in East Africa. Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30981-1_3

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