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The impact of increasing the minimum legal age for work on school attendance in low- and middle-income countries.

ABSTRACT: Several countries have increased their legal minimum age for work in line with international conventions on child labor. We evaluated the effect of increasing the legal minimum age for work on school attendance in 3 low- and middle-income countries using difference-in-differences analyses. Increasing the legal minimum age for work increased school attendance by 3.0 (0.2, 5.8) percentage-points in Malawi, and 2.0 (0.2, 3.6) percentage-points in Colombia. In Malawi, we found a greater policy effect among girls compared to boys. In Colombia, the poorest tercile experienced the greatest improvement in educational outcomes. We found no evidence of an impact of increasing the legal minimum age for work on school attendance in Burkina Faso. Our findings suggest that increasing the legal minimum age for work has had a positive effect on educational outcomes in some low and middle income countries.

SUBMITTER: Oppong-Nkrumah O

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6593206 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of increasing the minimum legal age for work on school attendance in low- and middle-income countries.

Oppong-Nkrumah Oduro O Kaufman Jay S JS Heymann Jody J Frank John J Nandi Arijit A

SSM - population health 20190606

Several countries have increased their legal minimum age for work in line with international conventions on child labor. We evaluated the effect of increasing the legal minimum age for work on school attendance in 3 low- and middle-income countries using difference-in-differences analyses. Increasing the legal minimum age for work increased school attendance by 3.0 (0.2, 5.8) percentage-points in Malawi, and 2.0 (0.2, 3.6) percentage-points in Colombia. In Malawi, we found a greater policy effec ...[more]

PMID: 31289742

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Project description:Maternal employment has increased in low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) and is a hypothesized risk factor for maternal overweight due to increased income and behavioral changes related to time allocation. However, few studies have investigated this relationship in LMIC.Using cross-sectional samples from Demographic and Health Surveys, we investigated the association between maternal employment and overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25 kg/m2) among women in 38 LMIC (N = 162,768). We categorized mothers as formally employed, informally employed, or non-employed based on 4 indicators: employment status in the last 12 months; aggregate occupation category (skilled, unskilled); type of earnings (cash only, cash and in-kind, in-kind only, unpaid); and seasonality of employment (all year, seasonal/occasional employment). Formally employed women were largely employed year-round in skilled occupations and earned a wage (e.g. professional), whereas informally employed women were often irregularly employed in unskilled occupations and in some cases, were paid in-kind (e.g. domestic work). For within-country analyses, we used adjusted logistic regression models and included an interaction term to assess heterogeneity in the association by maternal education level. We then used meta-analysis and meta-regression to explore differences in the associations pooled across countries.Compared to non-employed mothers, formally employed mothers had higher odds of overweight (pooled odds ratio [POR] = 1.3; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.2, 1.4) whereas informally employed mothers, compared to non-employed mothers, had lower odds of overweight (POR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.64, 0.81). In 14 LMIC, the association varied by education. In these countries, the magnitude of the formal employment-overweight association was larger for women with low education (POR = 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1, 1.9) compared to those with high education (POR = 1.2; 95% CI: 1.0, 1.3).Formally employed mothers in LMIC have higher odds of overweight and the association varies by educational attainment in 14 countries. This knowledge highlights the importance of workplace initiatives to reduce the risk of overweight among working women in LMIC.

Project description:BackgroundSchool feeding programs are ubiquitous in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and may have critical implications for the health and education of school-age children and adolescents. This systematic review aimed to assess the impacts of school feeding on educational and health outcomes of children and adolescents in LMICs.MethodsInterventional studies on the effects of school feeding on nutritional and health outcomes of children and adolescents receiving primary or secondary education in LMICs were included. MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, and grey literature were searched (through December 2019) to identify eligible studies. We included randomized controlled trials and controlled before-after studies on school feeding conducted in LMICs among children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 who received primary or secondary education. Two reviewers independently conducted study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. Meta-analyses were performed for outcomes available in three or more independent studies. Subgroup analyses were conducted by study design and school feeding modality whenever possible.ResultsFifty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria for the review, including 44 randomized controlled trials and 13 controlled before-after studies; 19 articles were included in the meta-analysis. School feeding resulted in a significant increase in height (mean difference = 0.32 cm; confidence interval (CI) = 0.03, 0.61; P = 0.032) and weight (mean difference: 0.58 kg; 95% 95% CI = 0.22, 0.93; P = 0.001) over 12 months, compared to those in the control groups. School feeding also resulted in a significant increase in the percentage of school days attended (2.6%; 95% CI = 1.2%, 3.9%; P < 0.001).ConclusionsSchool feeding is an important approach to improving the health and education outcomes of children and adolescents living in LMICs. More well-designed research is needed to establish further the effectiveness of school feeding for nutritional outcomes and academic achievement.RegistrationPROSPERO ID: CRD42020159003.

Dataset Information

The impact of increasing the minimum legal age for work on school attendance in low- and middle-income countries.

Publications

The impact of increasing the minimum legal age for work on school attendance in low- and middle-income countries.

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