Long-Term Health Effects on the Next Generation of Ramadan Fasting During Pregnancy

Reyn Van Ewijk ()

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: Each year, many pregnant women fast from dawn to sunset during the Islamic holy month ofRamadan. Medical theory suggests that this may have negative long-term health effects on theiroffspring. Building upon the work of Almond and Mazumder (2008), and using Indonesian crosssectionaldata, I show that people who were exposed to Ramadan fasting during their mother'spregnancy have a poorer general health and are sick more often than people who were not exposed.This effect is especially pronounced among older people, who, when exposed, also report healthproblems more often that are indicative of coronary heart problems and type 2 diabetes. The exposedare a bit smaller in body size and weigh less. Among Muslims born during, and in the months after,Ramadan, the share of males is lower, which is most likely to be caused by death before birth. I showthat these effects are unlikely to be an artifact of common health shocks, correlated to the occurrenceof Ramadan, or o f fasting mainly occurring among women who, irrespective of fasting or not, wouldhave had unhealthier children anyway.

Keywords: health; Ramadan; pregnancy; nutrition; Indonesia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 I12 J1 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-hea and nep-sea
Date: 2009-04
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