Kevin Croke|Rifat Atun
The long run impact of early childhood deworming on numeracy and literacy: Evidence from Uganda
Harvard Global Health Institute|Harvard Global Health Institute
background 145 billion people currently suffer soil transmitted helminth infection largest burden occurring africa asia safe cost effective deworming treatment exists debate mass distribution treatment high prevalence settings world health organization recommends mass administration anthelmintic drugs preschool schoolaged children high 20 prevalence settings several long run follow studies influential trial suggested large benefits persist time recent systematic reviews called recommendation question methods findings paper analyzes longterm impact clusterrandomized trial eastern uganda provided mass deworming treatment preschool aged children 2000 2003 numeracy literacy skills children young adults living villages 20102015 study uses numeracy literacy data collected seven twelve years end deworming trial randomly selected subset communities original trial educationfocused survey relationship deworming study building earlier working paper used data 2010 2011 survey rounds paper uses additional four years numeracy literacy data 2012 2013 2014 2015 aggregating data survey rounds difference numeracy scores treatment versus control communities 007 standard deviations sd 95 ci 010 024 p 040 difference literacy scores 005 sd 95 ci 016 027 p 062 difference total scores 007 sd 95 ci 011 025 p 044 significant differences program impact gender numeracy literacy differentially positively affected girls age treatment effects larger primary school aged subsample also significant treatment interactions living households treatmenteligible children evidence differential treatment effects age program eligibility number years program eligibility conclusions mass deworming preschool aged children high prevalence communities uganda resulted statistically significant gains numeracy literacy 712 years program completion point estimates positive imprecise study lacked sufficient power rule substantial positive effects modest negative effects however suggestive evidence deworming relatively beneficial girls primary school aged children children living households treated children research approval analysis conducted secondary data publicly available research approval sought received individual records anonymized data provider prior public release