Table 3.
Exploring disease, maternal nutrition and diet mechanisms linking GNI or GDP growth shocks to child wasting.
| Dependent variable | Diarrhea in past 2 weeks | Fever-only in past 2 weeks | Low maternal BMI | Minimum diet diversity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age range | 0–59 m | 0–59 m | 15–49 years | 6–35 m |
| Elasticity of GNI shocks (w.gn) | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
| −0.073 | −0.071 | −0.087 | 0.194** | |
| (−0.210, 0.063) | (−0.267, 0.125) | (−0.230, 0.057) | (0.004, 0.382) | |
| R-squared | 0.063 | 0.065 | 0.164 | 0.156 |
| Elasticity of GDP shocks (w.gn) | (5) | (6) | (7) | (8) |
| −0.123* | −0.184* | −0.144 | 0.155 | |
| (−0.274, 0.021) | (−0.387, 0.019) | (−0.368, 0.080) | (−0.091, 0.399) | |
| R-squared | 0.063 | 0.065 | 0.164 | 0.156 |
| DHS child, mother, household effects?a | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Country fixed effects? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Region-specific temporal effects?b | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
N = 1,230,393 for the diarrhea and fever-only regressions, while N = 884,436 for the low maternal BMI regression and N = 323,014 for the Minimum diet diversity regressions. Results are linear probability model coefficient point estimates with 95% confidence intervals based on standard errors clustered at the country level reported in parentheses, with significance levels as follows: ***p < 0.01, **p < 0.05, *p < 0.10. All regressions control for country fixed effects as well as region-specific seasonality effects, wasting-age dynamics, and trend effects. Note that these regressions refer to contemporaneous GNI or GDP growth rates rather than lagged growth rates. Regressions are weighted to be representative of the <5 year population of children of all countries included in this DHS dataset. The regressions control for various factors not reported for the sake of brevity: aDHS child, maternal and household effects include household asset ownership, maternal education years, piped water and flush toilet access, whether the child was born in a medical facility, whether the mother received four or more antenatal care visits, whether the child received all vaccinations, whether the child was born of a teenage pregnancy, whether the mother has four or more children, whether the child is female, and resides in a rural area. bTemporal effects include region-specific seasonality effects using month of survey dummies, wasting-age dynamics captured by child age dummies, and time trend effects captured by 5-year time dummies.