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Refrigerator ownership and child health and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries

Karlsson, Omar LU and Subramanian, S. V. (2023) In Global Food Security 37.
Abstract

Undernutrition and diarrhea cause stunted growth and poor child health. Refrigerators allow consumption of perishable foods and reduce food contaminations causing diarrhea. This study used 188 Demographic and Health Surveys from 66 low- and middle-income countries with adjusted regressions and coarsened exact matching, comparing children within the same neighborhoods and narrow groups of household wealth, as well as other important variables, simultaneously. Children in households with a refrigerator had 0.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.03, 0.13) to 0.12 (95% confidence interval: 0.01, 0.23) greater height-for-age z-score. Results for diarrhea and complementary feeding of perishable foods were less robust, which may relate to... (More)

Undernutrition and diarrhea cause stunted growth and poor child health. Refrigerators allow consumption of perishable foods and reduce food contaminations causing diarrhea. This study used 188 Demographic and Health Surveys from 66 low- and middle-income countries with adjusted regressions and coarsened exact matching, comparing children within the same neighborhoods and narrow groups of household wealth, as well as other important variables, simultaneously. Children in households with a refrigerator had 0.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.03, 0.13) to 0.12 (95% confidence interval: 0.01, 0.23) greater height-for-age z-score. Results for diarrhea and complementary feeding of perishable foods were less robust, which may relate to shortcomings in these measures, although point estimates indicated beneficial effects, particularly at low socioeconomic status.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Child health, Diarrhea, Height-for-age, Nutrition, Refrigerators
in
Global Food Security
volume
37
article number
100698
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85160327118
ISSN
2211-9124
DOI
10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100698
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: Karlsson was funded by Vetenskapsradet ( 2019-06396 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors
id
de86c35b-8b24-4b07-925f-5bbda5c3a425
date added to LUP
2023-06-20 15:19:31
date last changed
2023-06-20 15:42:18
@article{de86c35b-8b24-4b07-925f-5bbda5c3a425,
  abstract     = {{<p>Undernutrition and diarrhea cause stunted growth and poor child health. Refrigerators allow consumption of perishable foods and reduce food contaminations causing diarrhea. This study used 188 Demographic and Health Surveys from 66 low- and middle-income countries with adjusted regressions and coarsened exact matching, comparing children within the same neighborhoods and narrow groups of household wealth, as well as other important variables, simultaneously. Children in households with a refrigerator had 0.08 (95% confidence interval: 0.03, 0.13) to 0.12 (95% confidence interval: 0.01, 0.23) greater height-for-age z-score. Results for diarrhea and complementary feeding of perishable foods were less robust, which may relate to shortcomings in these measures, although point estimates indicated beneficial effects, particularly at low socioeconomic status.</p>}},
  author       = {{Karlsson, Omar and Subramanian, S. V.}},
  issn         = {{2211-9124}},
  keywords     = {{Child health; Diarrhea; Height-for-age; Nutrition; Refrigerators}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Global Food Security}},
  title        = {{Refrigerator ownership and child health and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100698}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100698}},
  volume       = {{37}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}