Kenya : Do Infants Benefit When Older Siblings are Dewormed?

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: PRIMARY SCHOOLS;    SKILLS;    CHILD HEALTH;    STUDY;    WORKERS;   

RP-ID  :  99207

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Early childhood is a crucial window ofopportunity for improving lives. The challenge forpolicymakers and development experts knows which programsgive children’s development the best boost and how toimplement them. The World Bank is committed to helpinggovernments understand whether programs to improve lives aresucceeding. Rigorous impact evaluations are often carriedout to provide the evidence of impact. In Kenya, a WorldBank researcher went back after a decade to measure theimpact of a deworming campaign on young children whose oldersiblings and neighbors had received the dewormingmedication. The evaluation indicates that having fewer wormsin their communities gave these younger children a boost,most likely because they faced lower risk of infectionduring a vital period of development. The results are areminder of the importance of following up on developmentprograms to measure long-term impacts that can show lastingimprovements in the lives of millions. Currently, dewormingin Kenya has been scaled up nationwide, giving primaryschool age children better health and, as this evaluationshows, the chance for cognitive improvement for the youngestfamily members too.