tailieunhanh - THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The magnitude of this relationship has important policy implications. If there is a positive effect of mother’s education as knowledge on children’s health, certain type of policies concerning the diffusion of specific information at community levels can be called for. For example, one important channel through which mother’s education as knowledge can affect child’s health at a community level is through the usage of health facilities which can serve as a complement or even as a substitute for the mother’s education. Therefore, a policy concern that we examine is the impact of health facilities interacted with mother’s education as knowledge. Finally, motivated by the U shape pattern in. | Annu. Rev. Public Health. 1997. 18 463 83 Copyright 1997 by Annual Reviews Inc. All rights reserved THE EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON CHILD HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT J. Lawrence Aber and Neil G. Bennett Columbia University School of Public Health National Center for Children in Poverty 154 Haven Avenue New York 10032 e-mail nb91@ Dalton C. Conley Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program School of Public Health 140 Warren Hall Berkeley California 94720-7360 Jiali Li Columbia University School ofPublic Health National Center for Children in Poverty 154 Haven Avenue New York 10032 KEYWORDS poverty infant mortality child morbidity cognitive development poverty measurement Abstract Poverty has been shown to negatively influence child health and development along a number of dimensions. For example poverty-net of a variety of potentially confounding factors-is associated with increased neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rates greater risk of injuries resulting from accidents or physical abuse neglect higher risk for asthma and lower developmental scores in a range of tests at multiple ages. Despite the extensive literature available that addresses the relationship between poverty and child health and development as yet there is no consensus on how poverty should be operationalized to reflect its dynamic nature. Perhaps more important is the lack of agreement on the set of controls that should be included in the modeling of this relationship in order to determine the true or net effect of poverty independent of its cofactors. In this paper we suggest a general model that should be adhered to when investigating the effects of poverty on children. We propose a standard set of controls and various measures of poverty that should be incorporated in any study when possible. 463 0163-7525 97 464 ABER ET AL Introduction In the late 1970s the British government commissioned a study on social inequality and health status. A major