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Childhood stunting and subsequent educational outcomes: a marginal structural model analysis from a South African longitudinal study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2022

Lateef B Amusa
Affiliation:
Department of Statistics, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
Annah Vimbai Bengesai*
Affiliation:
College of Law and Management Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 4000 Durban, South Africa
Hafiz TA Khan
Affiliation:
College of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare, University of West London, Brentford, UK
*
*Corresponding author: Email bengesai@ukzn.ac.za
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Abstract

Objective:

To examine the association between childhood stunting and grade completion (as educational outcome) in South Africa.

Design:

Longitudinal study. Data were obtained using the National Income Dynamics Study over five waves (2008 to 2017). Children were tracked at wave 1 in 2008 until wave 5 in 2017 to determine their total years of schooling. We controlled for time-variant and time-varying confounding with a marginal structural model to estimate the associations between childhood stunting and subsequent grade completion.

Setting:

Nationally representative study of South African households.

Participants:

A total of 2629 children aged 2 and 3 years in 2008.

Results:

We observed a substantial decrease in the prevalence of stunting between wave 1 (28·2 %) and wave 4 (8·6 %). Our marginal structural model results suggest that childhood stunting was significantly associated with decreased odds (22 % less likely) of grade completion (OR = 0·78; 95 % CI: 0·40, 0·86; P = 0·015), while those who were only stunted during early childhood had a 29 % reduction in the odds of grade completion (OR = 0·71; 95 % CI: 0·51, 0·82; P = 0·020).

Conclusion:

These findings underscore the fact that stunting is a significant predictor of academic achievement, whose effects might be long-lasting.

Information

Type
Research Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society
Figure 0

Fig. 1 Simplified directed acyclic graphs of the hypothetical causal relationship between time-dependent stunting on subsequent educational attainment. Numeric subscripts 0, 1, 2 and 3 denote the baseline period (wave 1), 1st, 2nd and 3rd follow-ups, respectively. V represent the time-invariant baseline covariates (gender, race, birth weight and parental education); A represents stunting status; L represents the time-varying covariates (household receipt of government grants, child lived with both parents, child has any illness or disability, type of residential area, household income and household size) at time points other than the baseline. Panel A: stunting effect was captured only for the early childhood years (within the first 5 years); Panel B: stunting effect was captured till the later childhood years (as late as the age of 9 years)

Figure 1

Fig. 2 Educational attainment of cohort members in 2017 (aged 9–12 years)

Figure 2

Table 1 Sample characteristics, NIDS waves 1–4

Figure 3

Table 2 Distribution of baseline covariates according to stunting status

Figure 4

Table 3 Associations between stunting and subsequent educational attainment

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