Department of Economics, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, United States of America.
Tata- Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Nov 16;18(11):e0283935. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283935. eCollection 2023.
Investing in nutrition sensitive sectors such as education can be an effective strategy for combatting malnutrition. In this paper we analyze the role that men's education plays in determining dietary diversity outcomes using primary data from 3600 households across four districts of India. Dietary diversity scores were calculated to reflect the quality of food intake, for households and women. Men's education level was considered as the primary driver of diet diversity. To establish a causal link between men's education and diet diversity, the education level of parents and siblings were used as instrumental variables. We find that men's education levels are associated with significantly higher diet diversity scores both for the household and for women. The role of men's education continues to be a significant determinant of diet quality after controlling for household and individual- level confounding factors including the education level of the woman. The results are consistent across different definitions of the diet diversity score and reference period. Methodologically we extend the evidence on the education-nutrition pathway from being associational to causal in nature. Results from this study point to the benefits of leveraging men's education as an effective pathway for improving nutritional outcomes within households.
投资于教育等营养敏感部门可能是应对营养不良的有效策略。本文利用印度四个地区 3600 户家庭的原始数据，分析了男性教育在决定饮食多样性结果方面的作用。我们计算了饮食多样性评分，以反映家庭和妇女的食物摄入质量。男性的教育水平被认为是饮食多样性的主要驱动因素。为了在男性教育和饮食多样性之间建立因果关系，我们使用父母和兄弟姐妹的教育水平作为工具变量。我们发现，男性的教育水平与家庭和妇女的饮食多样性得分显著相关。在控制了家庭和个人层面的混杂因素（包括妇女的教育水平）后，男性教育水平仍然是饮食质量的重要决定因素。不同饮食多样性评分和参考期的定义下，结果都是一致的。从本质上讲，我们在方法学上将教育-营养途径的证据从关联性扩展到了因果关系。本研究的结果表明，利用男性教育作为改善家庭营养结果的有效途径具有重要意义。
