Rukiko Massami Denis, Mwakalobo Adam Ben Swebe, Mmasa Joel Johnson
Department of Business Administration and Management (DBAM), College of Business and Economics, The University of Dodoma (UDOM), Tanzania.
Department of Economics (DoE), College of Business and Economics, The University of Dodoma (UDOM), Tanzania.
Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2023 Oct 6;6:100437. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2023.100437. eCollection 2023 Dec.
As stunting is the most perilous health and nutrition problem for children under five in rural poor households worldwide and CCT programs are normally used to reduce poverty through conditionalities, this study examines the effect of CCT program health conditionality on reducing stunting, considering the longer time perspective which lacks in most available evidence.
This was quasi-experimental design.
The study used secondary household data kept by TASAF PSSN in Tanzania, coupled with corresponding children data from their respective clinic cards. The study used Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) for inferential statistics regarding household stunting.
Children mothers are mostly non-educated with 33 % for control and 23 % for treatment ended in class seven. At 95 % CI and shorter time, the control group were better in stunting by 0.14 points compared to treatment albeit not significant. For longer time, TASAF CCT program through health conditionality compliance reported 0.31 points reduction in stunting significant at 95 % CI.
The results reveal that for the short time, CCT health conditionality does not result in reducing stunting in under-five children. However, given the longer time (more than five years), CCT health conditionalities have the potential to reduce stunting in children and improve children's health status. The study recommends compliance with CCT program conditionalities as one among the means of improving under-five children's health status. Furthermore, the study urges policy makers to rely on longer-time children's health outcomes for policy decisions as shorter time reveals negative and non-significant.
由于发育迟缓是全球农村贫困家庭中五岁以下儿童面临的最危险的健康和营养问题，且有条件现金转移支付（CCT）计划通常用于通过附加条件来减少贫困，本研究从大多数现有证据所缺乏的更长时间视角，考察了CCT计划的健康条件对减少发育迟缓的影响。
这是一项准实验设计。
该研究使用了坦桑尼亚社会行动基金（TASAF）公共支出跟踪调查（PSSN）留存的家庭二级数据，以及来自各自诊所卡片的相应儿童数据。该研究使用回归断点设计（RDD）对家庭发育迟缓情况进行推断统计。
儿童母亲大多未受过教育，对照组有33%、治疗组有23%的母亲只读到七年级。在95%置信区间和较短时间内，对照组的发育迟缓情况比治疗组好0.14分，尽管不显著。在较长时间内，通过遵守健康条件的TASAF CCT计划，发育迟缓情况减少了0.31分，在95%置信区间显著。
结果显示，短期内，CCT的健康条件并未导致五岁以下儿童发育迟缓情况的减少。然而，从较长时间（超过五年）来看，CCT的健康条件有潜力减少儿童发育迟缓并改善儿童健康状况。该研究建议将遵守CCT计划条件作为改善五岁以下儿童健康状况的手段之一。此外，该研究敦促政策制定者在做出政策决策时依赖儿童更长时间的健康结果，因为较短时间显示出负面且不显著的结果。
