Elisabetta Aurino|Sharon Wolf|Edward Tsinigo
Household food insecurity and early childhood development: Longitudinal evidence from Ghana
Imperial College London|University of Pennsylvania
burden food insecurity large subsaharan africa yet evidencebase relation household food insecurity early child development extremely limited furthermore available research mostly relies crosssectional data limiting quality existing evidence use longitudinal data preschoolaged children households ghana investigate food insecure household associated early child development outcomes across three years household food insecurity measured three years using household hunger score households first classified ever food insecure food insecure round also assessed persistence household food insecurity classifying households three categories never food insecure ii transitory food insecurity household food insecure one wave iii persistent food insecurity household food insecure two waves child development assessed across literacy numeracy socialemotional shortterm memory selfregulation domains controlling baseline values respective outcome child household characteristics children ever food insecure households lower literacy numeracy shortterm memory distinguished transitory persistent food insecurity transitory spells food insecurity predicted decreased numeracy 0176 95 ci 0317 0035 shortterm memory 0237 95 ci 0382 0092 selfregulation 0154 95 ci 0326 0017 compared children never food insecure households contrast children residing persistently food insecure households lower literacy scores 0243 95 ci 0496 0009 gender differences detected results broadly robust inclusion additional controls novel evidence subsaharan african country highlights need multisectoral approaches including social protection nutrition support early child development