Reducing children's malnutrition by increasing mothers' health insurance coverage: A focus on stunting and underweight across 32 sub-Saharan African countries

Raymond Elikplim Kofinti, Isaac Koomson, Jones Arkoh Paintsil and Edward Kwabena Ameyaw

Economic Modelling, 2022, vol. 117, issue C

Abstract: Despite the potential role of a mother's health insurance coverage in enhancing her children's health and well-being, research examining its impact on children's nutritional outcomes remains sparse. We examine the link between mothers' health insurance subscription and child malnutrition using data extracted from the Demographic and Health Surveys program across 32 sub-Saharan African countries on 109,019 children under the age of 5. We measure child stunting and underweight using height-for-age z-scores and weight-for-age z-scores, respectively. After addressing endogeneity, we found that mothers' health insurance subscription decreases child stunting and underweight. These results are robust to different approaches to addressing endogeneity and different measures of child stunting and underweight. The effect of mothers' health insurance subscription on stunting and underweight is more pronounced among girls than boys. These findings further demonstrate that mothers' health insurance subscription influences child stunting and underweight through maternal healthcare utilization and the provision of diversified diets to children.

Keywords: Health insurance; Children health outcomes; Stunting; Underweight; Dietary diversity; Maternal healthcare utilization (MHU); Sub-saharan africa (SSA) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G22 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:117:y:2022:i:c:s0264999322002863

DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2022.106049

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