The impact of prenatal care on child malnutrition: evidence from Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

We analyse the impact of prenatal care on child malnutrition, using data from a baseline household survey conducted in rural Guinea-Bissau. We employ children’s anthropometric measures to estimate malnutrition indicators, and then apply a Logistic Regression approach to determine the impacts of hospital delivery and the number of prenatal appointments on these indicators. Bearing in mind the potential endogeneity issues in our approach, we make use of an Instrumental Variable. Our results show that children who are born in a hospital are less likely to be malnourished years later. These results bear important policy implications for the context of rural Guinea-Bissau, advocating for policies which incentivize deliveries in health facilities.