Abstract
We report on the results of a randomised controlled trial conducted among over 2,000 children in 60 elementary schools in rural Shaanxi Province, North-west China. We find that providing children with daily iron supplements for six months improved children’s haemoglobin levels and standardised maths scores. In comparison, educating parents about nutrition and anaemia in a special parents meeting produced a modest impact on children’s haemoglobin levels. We also find heterogeneous intervention effects by children’s gender, anaemia status and boarding status. Overall, iron supplementation is more effective. However, given its low cost and simple implementation, parental education should still be considered.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 502-519 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Development Studies |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 30 Jan 2014 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Bibliographical note
We thank Howard White (the managing editor) and two anonymous referees for many helpful comments.Funding
We acknowledge the financial assistance of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71033003), Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-06) and Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2011RC102).