Malnutrition accounts for nearly half of child deaths worldwide. Children who are well-nourished are better able to learn in school, grow into more physically capable adults, and require less health care during childhood and adulthood. Moreover, it is difficult to make up for poor childhood nutrition later in life. I present here the proposal for an intervention that builds on a larger study in Ethiopia and will generate insights into the importance of behavioral factors related to persistent malnutrition in low-income settings, allowing for more targeted, cost-effective interventions in the future.
Existing data from the study region, Oromia, Ethiopia, suggest that many mothers know how to correctly respond to a hypothetical situation where a young child exhibits poor growth. On the other hand, however, mothers frequently appear unaware about their own children's growth deficiencies. Together, these facts suggest that false beliefs about the appropriateness of a child's physical size are a more likely contributor to malnutrition, rather than a weak understanding of how to help a malnourished child.
The proposed intervention will provide evidence on the relationship between caregiver beliefs about child nutritional status and the caregiver's behavior, ultimately analyzing how this relationship influences important nutritional choices for young children in a setting with limited resources. The study uses a two-by-two randomized trial; the first treatment is a cash transfer labeled for child food consumption, and the second is the provision of personalized information about the quality of the child's height compared to other children like those of the same age and gender in East Africa. Together the two treatment arms will provide evidence about the relative importance of behavioral versus resource barriers to improved nutrition. Better understanding of the interaction between these key factors is essential in addressing one of the foremost health issues facing developing countries today.
