Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China

Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of students aged 6–16 in compulsory education. We use data from the Chin...

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Autores principales: Wang, Jingxi, Hernandez, Manuel A., Deng, Guoying
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140196
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author Wang, Jingxi
Hernandez, Manuel A.
Deng, Guoying
author_browse Deng, Guoying
Hernandez, Manuel A.
Wang, Jingxi
author_facet Wang, Jingxi
Hernandez, Manuel A.
Deng, Guoying
author_sort Wang, Jingxi
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of students aged 6–16 in compulsory education. We use data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey corresponding to four pre-treatment years (2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011) and one post-treatment year (2015) and find that program participation is, on average, associated with a higher child height-for-age. The impacts are larger among students in a better health condition but small or not significant among the most disadvantaged. We do not observe heterogeneous effects across several individual and household characteristics. We also find positive but not significant effects on Body Mass Index-for-age and weight-for-age. The results suggest that NIP partially improved students' health over the first years of implementation, but more support is needed to achieve broader impacts that effectively reach all vulnerable students.
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spelling CGSpace1401962025-10-26T13:02:12Z Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China Wang, Jingxi Hernandez, Manuel A. Deng, Guoying data analysis data body mass index implementation school feeding child health social protection nutrition rural areas Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of a large-scale school meal program in rural China on the health and nutritional status of students aged 6–16 in compulsory education. We use data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey corresponding to four pre-treatment years (2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011) and one post-treatment year (2015) and find that program participation is, on average, associated with a higher child height-for-age. The impacts are larger among students in a better health condition but small or not significant among the most disadvantaged. We do not observe heterogeneous effects across several individual and household characteristics. We also find positive but not significant effects on Body Mass Index-for-age and weight-for-age. The results suggest that NIP partially improved students' health over the first years of implementation, but more support is needed to achieve broader impacts that effectively reach all vulnerable students. 2023-06 2024-03-14T12:09:04Z 2024-03-14T12:09:04Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140196 en https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzac060.065 https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.58.3.1019-10515R1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2022.111850 https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/the-power-of-school-feeding-programmes-to-improve-nutrition.html https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134319 Open Access Elsevier Wang, Jingxi; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Deng, Guoying. 2023. Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China. China Economic Review 79(June 2023): 101974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2023.101974
spellingShingle data analysis
data
body mass index
implementation
school feeding
child health
social protection
nutrition
rural areas
Wang, Jingxi
Hernandez, Manuel A.
Deng, Guoying
Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title_full Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title_fullStr Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title_full_unstemmed Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title_short Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
title_sort large scale school meal programs and student health evidence from rural china
topic data analysis
data
body mass index
implementation
school feeding
child health
social protection
nutrition
rural areas
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140196
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