IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/ecdecc/doi10.1086-671716.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Adequate Prenatal Care on Urban Birth Outcomes: An Analysis in a Developing Country Context

Author

Listed:
  • Gissele Gajate-Garrido

Abstract

Deficient birth outcomes entail greater mortality risks and higher probabilities of poor future health. This study examines the effect of the World Health Organization's prenatal care recommendations for developing countries. It accounts for the endogenous nature of prenatal care decisions by using an instrumental variables approach based on the opportunity cost and accessibility of prenatal services. Using the urban sample of the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, I construct a measure of prenatal care based on the WHO recommendations. This measure involves both timing and intensity. The instrumental variable used is shown to be strong and valid. The results show that adequate care has a positive impact on birth weight and decreases the probability of poor birth outcomes. The results are robust to seasonality and time effects and are not driven by the potential influence of rainfall shocks on maternal health. I also test the effectiveness of the WHO methodology by modifying the definition of adequate care in terms of both its timing and frequency. The results suggest that the current recommendations are appropriately defined.

Suggested Citation

  • Gissele Gajate-Garrido, 2013. "The Impact of Adequate Prenatal Care on Urban Birth Outcomes: An Analysis in a Developing Country Context," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(1), pages 95-130.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/671716
    DOI: 10.1086/671716
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/671716
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/671716
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/671716?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heather Royer, 2009. "Separated at Girth: US Twin Estimates of the Effects of Birth Weight," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 49-85, January.
    2. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2007. "From the Cradle to the Labor Market? The Effect of Birth Weight on Adult Outcomes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 409-439.
    3. R. Todd Jewell & Patricia Triunfo, 2006. "The impact of prenatal care on birthweight: the case of Uruguay," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(11), pages 1245-1250, November.
    4. Theodore Joyce, 1994. "Self-Selection, Prenatal Care, and Birthweight among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in New York City," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 29(3), pages 762-794.
    5. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    6. Mark R. Rosenzweig & T. Paul Schultz, 1982. "The Behavior of Mothers as Inputs to Child Health: The Determinants of Birth Weight, Gestation, and Rate of Fetal Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Economic Aspects of Health, pages 53-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Rosemary Hyson & Janet Currie, 1999. "Is the Impact of Health Shocks Cushioned by Socioeconomic Status? The Case of Low Birthweight," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 245-250, May.
    8. Philip Oreopoulos & Mark Stabile & Randy Walld & Leslie L. Roos, 2008. "Short-, Medium-, and Long-Term Consequences of Poor Infant Health: An Analysis Using Siblings and Twins," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(1).
    9. Grossman, Michael & Joyce, Theodore J, 1990. "Unobservables, Pregnancy Resolutions, and Birth Weight Production Functions in New York City," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 983-1007, October.
    10. Warner, Geoffrey L, 1995. "Prenatal Care Demand and Birthweight Production of Black Mothers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(2), pages 132-137, May.
    11. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G, 1995. "An Economic Analysis of Delayed Primary School Enrollment in a Low Income Country: The Role of Early Childhood Nutrition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 77(1), pages 156-169, February.
    12. Fuchs, Victor R. (ed.), 1982. "Economic Aspects of Health," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226267852, December.
    13. Glewwe, Paul & Jacoby, Hanan G. & King, Elizabeth M., 2001. "Early childhood nutrition and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 345-368, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Makate, Marshall & Makate, Clifton, 2016. "Demand for prenatal care and its impact on neonatal, infant and child mortality in Zimbabwe: Evidence from the Demographic and Health Surveys," MPRA Paper 72805, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 31 Jul 2016.
    2. Fidel Gonzalez & Santosh Kumar, 2018. "Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1156-1170, February.
    3. Santosh Kumar & Fidel Gonzalez, 2018. "Effects of health insurance on birth weight in Mexico," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1149-1159, August.
    4. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2022. "The effects of incentivizing early prenatal care on infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. David Mmopelwa, 2019. "Prenatal care utilization and infant health in Botswana," Discussion Papers 2019-09, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    6. Edward N. Okeke, 2021. "Money and my mind: Maternal cash transfers and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(11), pages 2879-2904, November.
    7. Lautharte, Ildo, 2021. "Babies and Bandidos: Birth outcomes in pacified favelas of Rio de Janeiro," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Xiaoying Liu & Jere R Behrman & Aryeh D Stein & Linda S Adair & Santosh K Bhargava & Judith B Borja & Mariangela Freitas da Silveira & Bernardo L Horta & Reynaldo Martorell & Shane A Norris & Linda M , 2017. "Prenatal care and child growth and schooling in four low- and medium-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    9. Okeke, Edward N. & Abubakar, Isa S., 2020. "Healthcare at the beginning of life and child survival: Evidence from a cash transfer experiment in Nigeria," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    10. Mensah,Justice Tei & Hirfrfot,Kibrom Tafere & Abay,Kibrom A., 2022. "Saving Lives through Technology : Mobile Phones and Infant Mortality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9978, The World Bank.
    11. Machio Phyllis Mumia, 2017. "Determinants of Neonatal and Under-five Mortality in Kenya: Do Antenatal and Skilled Delivery Care Services Matter?," Working Papers 340, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    12. Olukorede Abiona & Joseph B. Ajefu, 2023. "The impact of timing of in utero drought shocks on birth outcomes in rural households: evidence from Sierra Leone," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1333-1362, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David Mmopelwa, 2019. "Prenatal care utilization and infant health in Botswana," Discussion Papers 2019-09, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    2. Gaurav Dhamija, 2018. "The Joint Determination of Later Life Health and Educational Outcomes by Early Life Conditions: A Multinomial Logit Analysis," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 10(3), pages 197-227, December.
    3. Aparna Lhila & Sharon Long, 2012. "What is driving the black–white difference in low birthweight in the US?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 301-315, March.
    4. Fidel Gonzalez & Santosh Kumar, 2018. "Prenatal care and birthweight in Mexico," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1156-1170, February.
    5. Petter Lundborg & Carl Hampus Lyttkens & Paul Nystedt, 2016. "The Effect of Schooling on Mortality: New Evidence From 50,000 Swedish Twins," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(4), pages 1135-1168, August.
    6. Ana I. Balsa & Patricia Triunfo, 2012. "The Effectiveness of Prenatal Care in a Low Income Population: A Panel Data Approach," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1204, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    7. Gábor Kertesi & Gábor Kézdi, 2016. "On the test score gap between Roma and non-Roma students in Hungary and its potential causes," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(1), pages 135-162, January.
    8. Conway, Karen Smith & Deb, Partha, 2005. "Is prenatal care really ineffective? Or, is the 'devil' in the distribution?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 489-513, May.
    9. Geoffrey Warner, 1998. "Birthweight Productivity of Prenatal Care," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 42-63, July.
    10. Wehby, George L. & Murray, Jeffrey C. & Castilla, Eduardo E. & Lopez-Camelo, Jorge S. & Ohsfeldt, Robert L., 2009. "Prenatal care demand and its effects on birth outcomes by birth defect status in Argentina," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 84-95, March.
    11. Karen Smith Conway & Lisa DeFelice Kennedy, 2004. "Maternal Depression and the Production of Infant Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(2), pages 260-286, October.
    12. Sonchak, Lyudmyla, 2015. "Medicaid reimbursement, prenatal care and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 10-24.
    13. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    14. Lina Cardona-Sosa & Carlos Medina, 2016. "The Effects of In utero Programs on Birth Outcomes: The Case of “Buen Comienzo” *** El Efecto de Programas dirigidos a Madres Gestantes en Indicadores al Nacer: El caso de “Buen Comienzo”," Borradores de Economia 955, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    15. George L. Wehby & Jeffrey C. Murray & Eduardo E. Castilla & Jorge S. Lopez‐Camelo & Robert L. Ohsfeldt, 2009. "Quantile effects of prenatal care utilization on birth weight in Argentina," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(11), pages 1307-1321, November.
    16. Brian Beach & Martin Saavedra, 2015. "Mitigating the Effects of Low Birth Weight: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Adoptees," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 275-296, Summer.
    17. Santosh Kumar & Fidel Gonzalez, 2018. "Effects of health insurance on birth weight in Mexico," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(8), pages 1149-1159, August.
    18. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.
    19. Gabriella Conti & Mark Hanson & Hazel Inskip & Sarah Crozier & Cyrus Cooper & Keith Godfrey, 2018. "Beyond Birth Weight: The Origins of Human Capital," Working Papers 2018-089, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    20. Douglas Almond & Janet Currie, 2011. "Killing Me Softly: The Fetal Origins Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 153-172, Summer.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucp:ecdecc:doi:10.1086/671716. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.