There is a pressing need to clarify and quantify the independent role of formal schooling and of education in general on the development of adult health and the health of subsequent generations,especially in developing countries where resources are particularly limiting. Most previous research has been cross-sectional, has been conducted at the aggregate rather than the household level, or has not considered either the determinants of school attendance, the quality of the schooling available, or the impact of schooling on determinants of health such as wages and productivity, migration, and marriage. Our study addresses most of the limitations of the existing literature. The setting is four villages in the Oriente (Eastern) region of Guatemala and the localities to where people from these communities migrated. A unique feature of our study is that it builds upon 35 years of data collection and interaction with these individuals. Beginning in 1969, parents and children participated in a well-known longitudinal study by the Institute of Nutrition in Central America and Panama (INCAP) that is rich in data about home environment, growth, cognitive development, diet and morbidity. Subsequent follow-ups of the children, and in some cases their own children, have been conducted in 1988, 1996-1999, and most recently in 2002-2003. Our study thus links prospectively collected data on pre-schooling cognitive functioning, investments in children's schooling, educational achievment, and health status and lifestyle in adulthood. Thus we are able to look forward at the pathways through which schooling may operate, and backward at the factors that might determine schooling (and also, independently, health outcomes). Our study is a collaboration between accomplished researchers in the disciplines of epidemiology, anthropology, economics, and nutrition, who have the experience necessary for the multidisciplinary nature of the study. Members of the research team have a successful history of collaboration, in some cases over decades, in conducting and analyzing field studies and other research.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD046125-02
Application #
6849299
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SNEM-2 (50))
Program Officer
Spittel, Michael
Project Start
2004-02-01
Project End
2007-01-31
Budget Start
2005-02-01
Budget End
2006-01-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$259,784
Indirect Cost
Name
Emory University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
066469933
City
Atlanta
State
GA
Country
United States
Zip Code
30322
Behrman, Jere R; Hoddinott, John; Maluccio, John A et al. (2014) What determines adult cognitive skills? Influences of pre-school, school, and post-school experiences in Guatemala. Lat Am Econ Rev 23:4
Hoddinott, John; Behrman, Jere R; Maluccio, John A et al. (2013) Adult consequences of growth failure in early childhood. Am J Clin Nutr 98:1170-8
Yount, Kathryn M; Maluccio, John A; Behrman, Jere R et al. (2013) Parental Resources, Schooling Achievements, and Gender Schooling Gaps: Evidence of Change over 25 years in Rural Guatemala. Popul Res Policy Rev 32:495-528
Graff, Mariaelisa; Yount, Kathryn M; Ramakrishnan, Usha et al. (2010) Childhood nutrition and later fertility: pathways through education and pre-pregnant nutritional status. Demography 47:125-44
Gregory, Cria O; McCullough, Marjorie L; Ramirez-Zea, Manuel et al. (2009) Diet scores and cardio-metabolic risk factors among Guatemalan young adults. Br J Nutr 101:1805-11
Behrman, Jere R; Calderon, Maria C; Preston, Samuel H et al. (2009) Nutritional supplementation in girls influences the growth of their children: prospective study in Guatemala. Am J Clin Nutr 90:1372-9
Gregory, Cria O; Martorell, Reynaldo; Narayan, K M et al. (2009) Five-year changes in adiposity and cardio-metabolic risk factors among Guatemalan young adults. Public Health Nutr 12:228-35
Hoddinott, John; Maluccio, John A; Behrman, Jere R et al. (2008) Effect of a nutrition intervention during early childhood on economic productivity in Guatemalan adults. Lancet 371:411-6
Stein, Aryeh D; Wang, Meng; DiGirolamo, Ann et al. (2008) Nutritional supplementation in early childhood, schooling, and intellectual functioning in adulthood: a prospective study in Guatemala. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 162:612-8
Judd, Suzanne E; Ramirez-Zea, Manuel; Stein, Aryeh D (2008) Relation of ratio indices of anthropometric measures to obesity in a stunted population. Am J Hum Biol 20:446-50

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