Refrigeration and child growth: What is the connection?

Abstract

Child stunting in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) decreased from 22.9% in 1990 to 9.6% in 2017. While stunting rates in the region were falling, access to electricity and refrigeration were on the rise. Despite a large body of evidence surrounding the effects of refrigeration on food consumption, and separately of the importance of food consumption for child health and nutrition, surprisingly few studies explore the potential effects of refrigeration on child nutrition. We studied the relationship between refrigeration and child nutrition outcomes using rich panel data for 1298 low-income households with children younger than 12 months at baseline in El Alto, Bolivia. We estimated the effects of refrigerator ownership on diet and nutrition outcomes using a difference-in-difference approach. Owning a refrigerator was associated with increased food expenditures and improved child nutrition. We found evidence that households that acquired a refrigerator were more likely to buy food that requires refrigeration, and children in households that acquired refrigerators were 0.17 standard deviations taller for their age after 2 years. We also found that refrigeration was associated with a 0.26 standard deviation decline in BMI-for-age, an effect driven by increased height rather than lower weight. These results suggest that refrigeration may play a role in explaining reductions in undernutrition observed in low- and middle-income countries in recent decades.