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Health Outcomes

Freshwater availability and water fetching distance affect child health in sub-Saharan Africa

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Currently, more than two-thirds of the population in Africa must leave their home to fetch water for drinking and domestic use. The time burden of water fetching has been suggested to influence the volume of water collected by households as well as time spent on income generating activities and child care. However, little is known about the potential health benefits of reducing water fetching distances. Data from almost 200 000 Demographic and Health Surveys carried out in 26 countries were used to assess the relationship between household walk time to water source and child health outcomes. To estimate the causal effect of decreased water fetching time on health, geographic variation in freshwater availability was employed as an instrumental variable for one-way walk time to water source in a two-stage regression model. Time spent walking to a household’s main water source was found to be a significant determinant of under-five child health. A 15-min decrease in one-way walk time to water source is associated with a 41% average relative reduction in diarrhea prevalence, improved anthropometric indicators of child nutritional status, and a 11% relative reduction in under-five child mortality. These results suggest that reducing the time cost of fetching water should be a priority for water infrastructure investments in Africa.

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Journal Articles
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Environmental Science and Technology
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Jenna Davis
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Health and Aging in Japan

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Professor Hidehiko Ichimura of the University of Tokyo will share recent results from his research on the health of older adults and the retirement process in Japan. His research draws upon a unique data source, the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR). This rich dataset provides information on how middle-aged and elderly Japanese live in terms of economic, social, and health outcomes, and how these interact with their family status. The JSTAR project aims to provide longitudinal data enabling detailed policy-relevant comparisons to other industrialized countries (e.g. the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe, the U.S. Health and Retirement Study, the English Longitudinal Study on Aging, and similar surveys now launched in Korea, China, and India).

Professor Ichimura received his BA in economics from Osaka University in 1981 and his PhD in economics for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh, and University College London. He is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo. 

Philippines Conference Room

Hidehiko Ichimura Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Economics Speaker the University of Tokyo
Seminars

Health and Aging in Japan

Professor Hidehiko Ichimura of the University of Tokyo will share recent results from his research on the health of older adults and the retirement process in Japan. His research draws upon a unique data source, the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR). This rich dataset provides information on how middle-aged and elderly Japanese live in terms of economic, social, and health outcomes, and how these interact with their family status. The JSTAR project aims to provide longitudinal data enabling detailed policy-relevant comparisons to other industrialized countries (e.g. the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe, the US Health and Retirement Study, the English Longitudinal Study on Aging, and similar surveys now launched in Korea, China, and India).

Professor Ichimura received his BA in economics from Osaka University in 1981 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1988. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh, and University College London. He is now Professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo. 

Philippines Conference Room

Hidehiko Ichimura Professor in the Graduate School of Public Policy and Graduate School of Economics Speaker University of Tokyo
Seminars

Gender Imbalance in China: A Cautionary Tale of Land Reform, Income, and Sex Ratios

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Venue Changed to the Philippines Conference Room
 
This paper examines the effect of income growth induced by 1978–84 land reform on the
sex ratio imbalance in China. Using variation in reform timing by county together with the
absence of sex selection among first-born child, we compare the sex of the second child between families with a first girl and those with a first boy before and after the reform. Results show that following a first daughter, the second child is 5.5 percent more likely to be a boy after landreform. Better educated parents are substantially more likely to respond with sex selection. After assessing various potential channels, our evidence is most consistent with an effect of increased household income.
 
Shuang Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow at SIEPR. She received her PhD from Cornell University in 2012 and will start as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder after one year at SIEPR. Her primary interests are development, health and education. Her current work focuses on various reforms and health outcomes in China.
 

Philippines Conference Room

Shuang Zhang Postdoctoral Fellow, SIEPR Speaker Stanford University
Seminars

To What Extent Do Biological Markers Account for the Large Social Disparities in Health in Moscow?

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The physiological factors underlying links between health and socioeconomic position in the Russian population are important to investigate. This population continues to face political and economic challenges, has experienced poor general health and high mortality for decades, and has exhibited widening health disparities. Dr. Dana A. Glei and colleagues used data from a population-based survey of Moscow residents 55 and older to investigate whether physiological dysregulation mediates the link between socioeconomic status and health. She will discuss the the results of their study, which revealed large educational disparities in health outcomes and physiological dysregulation, especially in men.

Dana A. Glei is a senior research investigator at Georgetown University and has worked on the Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study (Taiwan) since 2001. From 2002 to 2009, she also served as project coordinator for the Human Mortality Database, a collaborative project involving research teams at the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Over the past 18 years, she has published articles on a variety of topics related to health, mortality, marriage and the family, and poverty. Her current research focuses on sex differences in health and mortality, the impact of stressors on subsequent health, and how bioindicators mediate the links between psychosocial factors and health outcomes. She has an MA from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Princeton University.

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Dana A. Glei Senior Research Investigator Speaker Georgetown University
Seminars

Ivar Sønbø Kristiansen

117 Encina Commons
Room 186
Stanford, CA

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ivar.jpg MD, MPH

Ivar S. Kristiansen is a professor of public health at the Department of Health Management and Health Economics, University of Oslo, Norway and adjunct professor of pharmacoeconomics at the University of Southern Denmark at Odense. He is visiting scholar at Stanford Health Policy 2011-12.

Kristiansen’s research focuses on technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, and valuation of health outcomes. Also, he has worked for many years on the topic of risk communication in the context of chronic diseases when time is a crucial factor. He is one of the founders of Odense Risk Group.

Kristiansen received an MD from the University of Oslo in 1972, completed his internship at the University Hospital of Trondheim and then worked for 10 years as a combined family physician/public health officer in two remote communities in Norway. He received an MPH degree from Harvard University i 1986 and a PhD from University of Tromsø, Norway in 1996. Kristiansen is a past-President of the Norwegian Public Health Association and has served on numerous public committees in Norway.

Adjunct Affiliate at the Center for Health Policy and the Department of Health Policy
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