Skip Navigation



Health Policy and Planning Advance Access published online on March 29, 2006
Health Policy and Planning, doi:10.1093/heapol/czl007
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/3/231    most recent
czl007v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Holmes, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Holmes, J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved.

Original Papers

Do community factors have a differential impact on the health outcomes of boys and girls? Evidence from rural Pakistan

Jessica Holmes 1 *

1 Department of Economics, Middlebury College, VT, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Jessica Holmes, E-mail: jholmes{at}middlebury.edu


  Abstract

In countries with large gender disparities in health status, can investments in local communities mitigate the gender bias observed in intra-household resource allocations? This paper explores the evidence for gender differences in the impact of community prices and infrastructure on child nutritional outcomes. Standardized heights and weights of rural Pakistani children are used as health indicators, while community factors include wheat prices, availability of piped water, accessibility of shops and government health clinics and the quality of the closest health facilities. The results suggest that food subsidies and programmes designed to improve the access and quality of local services may reduce the impact of intra-household gender bias on child nutrition, particularly in the long run. Specifically, by increasing the affordability of staple foods, improving the access to shops and government health centres and enhancing the quality of local care, particularly (gender-neutral) prenatal care, gender gaps in health outcomes are likely to diminish.

Keywords: anthropometrics; child health; community infrastructure; gender bias; Pakistan.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.