Anemia and Child Education: The Case of Colombia

• Main Authors: Alejandro Gaviria, Alejandro Hoyos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá) 2011-12-01
• Series: Desarrollo y Sociedad
• Subjects: School attendance; overage; nutrition; micronutrients.
• Online Access: http://economia.uniandes.edu.co/revistadys/68/02_Anemia.pdf

Welfare programs in Colombia have focused on both reducing malnutrition and hunger and increasing school attendance. But there is not much evidence on the hypothesized relationship between nutrition status and schooling outcomes. Using the National Survey of Nutritional Status in Colombia – 2005 (ensin) and the Demographic and Health Survey – 2005 (dhs), this paper estimates the impact of nutrition on schooling outcomes. The results suggest that anemic children have a higher probability of being overage in school. Malnutrition, defined by anthropometric measures, does not have an impact on the probability of being overage. School attendance seems to be unrelated to nutrition measures. The results are consistent under different specifications.