Child malnutrition and prenatal care: evidence from three Latin American countries

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....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nohora Forero-Ramirez, Luis F. Gamboa, Arjun Bedi, Robert Sparrow
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Portuguese
Published: Pan American Health Organization 2014
Subjects:
Trastornos de la nutrición del niño
atención prenatal
desigualdades en la salud
estatura por edad
América Latina
Medicine
R
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
Arctic
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/63494b629a8547d480b640329a8c6894
Description
Summary: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.

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