The Determinants of Child Health Disparities in Jordan

The first few years of children’s lives provide a crucial window for their human development. Malnutrition, as a form of faltering development in the early years of life, has lasting consequences in terms of education, labor market, and adult health outcomes. Early childhood is also the period when inequality originates and the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality begins. It is therefore important to identify the causes of poor health in early childhood and to understand what drives inequality in early health and nutrition in order to provide children with equal chances for healthy growth. In Jordan, there are substantial socio-economic disparities in children’s health and nutrition. This paper examines the determinants and mediators of health disparities in children’s height and weight in Jordan, focusing on factors that might mediate socio-economic disparities, including parental health knowledge, food quantity and quality, health conditions, the health environment, and prenatal development. While this paper demonstrates that the health environment and food quantity and quality contribute to inequality in child health, these effects mediate only a small share of socio-economic disparities. A large share of inequality in children’s health is determined prenatally, for instance through disparities in fetal growth.