Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China
Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health and nutrition is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP), a large-scale school meal program in rural China, on the health and nutritional status of compulsory ed...
| Autores principales: | , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
International Food Policy Research Institute
2021
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143412 |
| _version_ | 1855531384785862656 |
|---|---|
| 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 and nutrition is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP), a large-scale school meal program in rural China, on the health and nutritional status of compulsory education students aged 6-16. We use data from multiple rounds of the China Health and Nutrition Survey between 2004-2015 and implement a quasi-experimental approach exploiting cross-county variations in program implementation. We find that NIP participation is, on average, associated with a higher height-for-age z-score in the order of 0.22-0.42 standard deviations. 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 do not find significant effects on Body Mass Index-for-age and weight-for-age z scores. 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. Several robustness checks support our findings. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace143412 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publishDateRange | 2021 |
| publishDateSort | 2021 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1434122025-12-09T21:37:13Z Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China Wang, Jingxi Hernandez, Manuel A. Deng, Guoying child nutrition health school feeding nutrition children rural areas project evaluation Reducing urban-rural gaps in child health and nutrition is one of the most difficult challenges faced by many countries. This paper evaluates the impact of the Nutrition Improvement Program (NIP), a large-scale school meal program in rural China, on the health and nutritional status of compulsory education students aged 6-16. We use data from multiple rounds of the China Health and Nutrition Survey between 2004-2015 and implement a quasi-experimental approach exploiting cross-county variations in program implementation. We find that NIP participation is, on average, associated with a higher height-for-age z-score in the order of 0.22-0.42 standard deviations. 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 do not find significant effects on Body Mass Index-for-age and weight-for-age z scores. 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. Several robustness checks support our findings. 2021-03-01 2024-05-22T12:13:58Z 2024-05-22T12:13:58Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143412 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/160752 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133550 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147004 https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133777 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Wang, Jingxi; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Deng, Guoying. 2021. Large-scale school meal programs and student health: Evidence from rural China. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2009. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134319. |
| spellingShingle | child nutrition health school feeding nutrition children rural areas project evaluation 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 | child nutrition health school feeding nutrition children rural areas project evaluation |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/143412 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wangjingxi largescaleschoolmealprogramsandstudenthealthevidencefromruralchina AT hernandezmanuela largescaleschoolmealprogramsandstudenthealthevidencefromruralchina AT dengguoying largescaleschoolmealprogramsandstudenthealthevidencefromruralchina |