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More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Cash transfer (CT) programmes are an increasingly common approach to alleviate poverty and inequality and improving child health and nutrition, as well as supporting other goals such as education. Evidence indicates that CTs can be effective, but overall impacts are small in magnitude. T...

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Autores principales: Manley, James, Alderman, Harold, Gentilini, Ugo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8977747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35365481
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008233
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author Manley, James
Alderman, Harold
Gentilini, Ugo
author_facet Manley, James
Alderman, Harold
Gentilini, Ugo
author_sort Manley, James
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cash transfer (CT) programmes are an increasingly common approach to alleviate poverty and inequality and improving child health and nutrition, as well as supporting other goals such as education. Evidence indicates that CTs can be effective, but overall impacts are small in magnitude. This paper substantially updates the evidence base on the effectiveness of CTs and moderating factors. METHODS: Building on a prior search done in 2018, we searched articles published between January 2018 and March 2021 using Agris, Econlit, Eldis, IBSS, IDEAS, IFPRI, Google Scholar, PubMed and World Bank databases. We included studies using quantitative impact evaluation methods of CTs with sample sizes over 300, targeted to households with children under 5 years conducted with clear counterfactuals in countries with gross domestic product below US$10 000 at baseline. We performed meta-analysis using random effects models to assess the impact of CT programme on selected child nutrition outcomes. FINDINGS: Out of 1561 articles identified, 55 additional articles were eligible for inclusion for a total of 129 estimates. We find that CTs have significant although modest effects on height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) (0.024, 95% CI 0.004 to 0.044; p<0.02); stunting (−1.35%, 95% CI −2.35 to − 0.35; p<0;01); wasting (−1.31%, 95% CI −2.16% to 0.46%; p<0.01); animal-source foods (6.72%, 95% CI 5.24% to 8.20%; p<0.01); diet diversity (0.55, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.81; p<0.01) and diarrhoea incidence (− 1.74%, 95% CI −2.79% to −0.68%; p<0.05). There was no significant effect of CTs on weight-for-height (WHZ) or weight-for-age z-scores (WAZ). Well-targeted behaviour change communication was also effective in improving HAZ and decreasing the prevalence of diarrhoea. INTERPRETATION: CT programmes improved linear growth among young children, reducing wasting and stunting, but effects are heterogeneous and somewhat small overall. More evidence indicates that effects on dietary diversity and the consumption of animal-source foods are increasingly pronounced.
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spelling pubmed-89777472022-04-20 More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis Manley, James Alderman, Harold Gentilini, Ugo BMJ Glob Health Original Research BACKGROUND: Cash transfer (CT) programmes are an increasingly common approach to alleviate poverty and inequality and improving child health and nutrition, as well as supporting other goals such as education. Evidence indicates that CTs can be effective, but overall impacts are small in magnitude. This paper substantially updates the evidence base on the effectiveness of CTs and moderating factors. METHODS: Building on a prior search done in 2018, we searched articles published between January 2018 and March 2021 using Agris, Econlit, Eldis, IBSS, IDEAS, IFPRI, Google Scholar, PubMed and World Bank databases. We included studies using quantitative impact evaluation methods of CTs with sample sizes over 300, targeted to households with children under 5 years conducted with clear counterfactuals in countries with gross domestic product below US$10 000 at baseline. We performed meta-analysis using random effects models to assess the impact of CT programme on selected child nutrition outcomes. FINDINGS: Out of 1561 articles identified, 55 additional articles were eligible for inclusion for a total of 129 estimates. We find that CTs have significant although modest effects on height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) (0.024, 95% CI 0.004 to 0.044; p<0.02); stunting (−1.35%, 95% CI −2.35 to − 0.35; p<0;01); wasting (−1.31%, 95% CI −2.16% to 0.46%; p<0.01); animal-source foods (6.72%, 95% CI 5.24% to 8.20%; p<0.01); diet diversity (0.55, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.81; p<0.01) and diarrhoea incidence (− 1.74%, 95% CI −2.79% to −0.68%; p<0.05). There was no significant effect of CTs on weight-for-height (WHZ) or weight-for-age z-scores (WAZ). Well-targeted behaviour change communication was also effective in improving HAZ and decreasing the prevalence of diarrhoea. INTERPRETATION: CT programmes improved linear growth among young children, reducing wasting and stunting, but effects are heterogeneous and somewhat small overall. More evidence indicates that effects on dietary diversity and the consumption of animal-source foods are increasingly pronounced. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8977747/ /pubmed/35365481 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008233 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Research
Manley, James
Alderman, Harold
Gentilini, Ugo
More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_fullStr More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_full_unstemmed More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_short More evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
title_sort more evidence on cash transfers and child nutritional outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8977747/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35365481
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008233
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