PEPP Seminar (May 9th, 2024): “Prevention of Child Stunting through Home-Based Growth Monitoring: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan”
2024/04/19
Dr. Takashi Kurosaki (Professor, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo)
Date： Thursday, May 9th, 2024
Time：16:45～18:15 (JST)
Venue: Room TBC
Abstract: In this study, we experimentally assess the effectiveness of home-based growth monitoring (HBGM) interventions in reducing child stunting by utilizing growth posters installed inside households. The intervention aims to increase the salience of nutritional information, shift parents’ preference for healthy norms, and enhance their understanding of the benefits associated with improved dietary and sanitary inputs to improve children’s health outcomes. We first report findings from an randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in slum areas of Karachi, Pakistan, during 2019-20. Our treatment sample comprised approximately 1,200 mother-child pairs. We observed a significant increase of 0.42 standard deviation in the Height-for-Age-Z score at the conclusion of the program. We then report preliminary findings from an ongoing RCT conducted in rural Sindh, whose interventions started in June 2023. Considering the rural setting, we employ a cluster-RCT approach covering 199 villages. In each village, approximately 15 mother-child pairs were recruited for the RCT. Study villages were randomized into either control (no intervention), treatment 1 (Karachi-style interventions with monthly visits by community health workers), or treatment 2 (light-touch version with automated voice calls replacing health workers’ visits). The ongoing RCT evaluates the efficacy of heavy-handed versus light-touch HBGM interventions in rural Pakistan, thereby providing evidence for their scalability and cost-effectiveness to improve child health and well-being.
Full Text: Abu S. Shonchoy, Agha A. Akram, Mahrukh Khan, Hina Khalid, Sidra Mazhar, Akib Khan, and Takashi Kurosaki. “A Community Health Worker-Based Intervention on Anthropometric Outcomes of Children Aged 3 to 21 Months in Urban Pakistan, 2019-2021”, American Journal of Public Health, January 2023, 113(1): 105-114. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307111
