A mechanism through which SES affects health: a case of the arsenic mitigation campaign in Bangladesh

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16K03619
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Economic policy
Research Institution	Nagoya University
Principal Investigator	Mangyo Eiji 名古屋大学, 経済学研究科, 教授 (30421233)
Research Collaborator	Cas Ava Gail The Catholic University of America, 講師 Haque Sheikh Touhidul , バングラデシュ国家公務員
Project Period (FY)	2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2018)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000) Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
Keywords	子供の健康 / 社会経済ステータス / SES / ヒ素 / バングラデシュ / 乳幼児期 / 胎児乳幼児期 / child health / socioeconomic status / arsenic / Bangladesh / early life / 飲料水 / 健康
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We examine the impact of arsenic exposure on child health in Bangladesh. The geographic variation in groundwater arsenic level as well as the massive well testing and awareness campaign in the late 1990s offer a natural experiment inducing variation in child’s exposure to arsenic. Given the government’s efforts to encourage households to switch away from “unsafe” wells, areas with “unsafe” groundwater arsenic levels prior to the campaign had greater improvement in child height-for-age relative to areas with “safe” arsenic levels. Results are statistically significant for children from educated households but not for children from uneducated households.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	人々の間に存在する健康の格差について、その発生のメカニズムは、ほぼ全くと言っていいほど解明されていない。これまで多くの研究が指摘していることは、教育や所得などの社会経済ステータス（SES)と健康状態は正相関していることである。本研究は、バングラデシュのヒ素啓発キャンペーンを自然実験として捉え、家計の教育の違いによって飲料水の取得についての行動に違いがあり、それが家計の乳幼児の子供の健康状態の違いにつながっている可能性を指摘した。