Table 4.
Effect of Doubling Cash Transfers in Oportunidades on Developmental outcomes in Children (24–72 y.o.) Six years after Program Inception*
| Cumulative cash transfer β (95% CI)† |
P | |
|---|---|---|
| Physical growth and health | ||
| Height for age z-score (HAZ) | 0.16 (0.08, 0.24) | <0.0001 |
| Stunted (HAZ<−2) | −0.09 (−0.13, −0.04) | <0.0001 |
| BMI for age percentile | −1.95 (−4.08, 0.17) | 0.07 |
| Overweight (BMI/age>85%) | −0.06 (−0.10, −0.02) | 0.001 |
| Hemoglobin (g/dl) | 0.13 (0.01, 0.24) | 0.03 |
| Sick days in the wk previous to the survey | −0.19 (−0.44, 0.06) | 0.14 |
| Motor development | ||
| Skill | 0.03 (−0.15, 0.22) | 0.70 |
| Endurance | 0.71 (0.63, 1.26) | 0.01 |
| Cognitive development | ||
| Long term memory (Woodcock-Muñoz subscale)‡ | 0.11 (0.05, 0.17) | <0.0001 |
| Short term memory (Woodcock-Muñoz subscale)‡ | 0.10 (0.06, 0.13) | <0.0001 |
| Visual integration (Woodcock-Muñoz subscale)‡ | 0.09 (0.05, 0.13) | <0.0001 |
| Language development | ||
| Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Peabody (TVIP)‡ | 0.18 (0.12, 0.25) | <0.0001 |
Adjusted unstandardized coefficients were estimated while controlling for individual-level characteristics (age/ sex groupings) and baseline characteristics (from 1997) of households, including household size, demographic structure (e.g. number of children and adults of various age groupings), characteristics of head of household (ethnicity, education), maternal characteristics (education, height, and PPVT score), housing characteristics (whether household had electricity or water), household assets (ownership of animals, land, and other big and small assets), and total length of time household was enrolled in Oportunidades. N ranges from 2913 to 3793 due to the fact that cognitive, language and motor outcomes were collected for children 36–72 months, and physical measures were collected for all children 24–72 months.
Results reported as effect size for each outcome associated with a doubling of cash transfers from the median of 7500 to 15000 (807 to 1613 US dollars) – which represents a move from approximately the 50th to the 75th percentile of total cumulative transfers.
Log of raw score used in analyses.