Determinants of child health during the economic transition in Romania

Abstract

In this study, I use cross-sectional household data from the 1994 Integrated Household Survey of Romania, to analyze the correlation of socioeconomic, demographic or environmental factors with growth attainment of pre-school (0–5 year old) boys and girls. Growth attainment of children is measured by the child weight-for-height, and height-for-age Z-scores, often used by nutritionists as indicators of short-run and long-run nutritional status. Reduced-form regressions are estimated, separately for boys and girls in rural and urban areas, including explanatory variables such as the age of the child, the educational level of the mother and household head, per capita household expenditures, and characteristics of the sanitary environment of the household. Accounting for the influence of unobserved heterogeneity at the cluster (village) level, such as differences in prices, and the quantity and quality of medical services available in the household community, reveals that there are substantial differences across gender and rural and urban areas in the patterns of correlation of socioeconomic, demographic or environmental factors with growth attainment of pre-school children. In rural areas, higher household income appears to have a positive effect on the long-run health status of girls as proxied by height-for age Z-scores, but a negative effect on short-run health status as proxied by weight-for-height Z-scores. In contrast, in the urban areas, both income and the level of education of the father do not appear to be significant correlates of growth attainment of either boys or girls. The education level of the mother is not a significant correlate of height-for-age in rural areas, but it is associated with poor growth attainment of boys and higher growth attainment of girls in urban areas.