Birth order and child nutritional status: evidence from the Philippines
Horton, S.
Economic Development and Cultural Change 36(2): 341-354
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-0079 DOI: 10.2307/1153771Document Number: 351227
Socioeconomic data were collected and indices of nutritional state were estimated in 1903 households in the Bicol region of the Philippines in 1978. The effect of birth order on child nutritional state was studied using sibling data and current and long-term nutritional states were examined. The results suggested that the effects of birth order on long-term nutritional state are greater than those in current nutritional state. The magnitude of the birth-order effects was important. The last-born child of a family of 7 had a height for age (long-term nutritional state) which was 0.5 to 2.5 s.d. below that of the firstborn.