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Early childhood health interventions have 鈥榖ig, multi-generation impacts鈥

In the late 鈥90s, Tania Barham, who is now an associate professor of economics at 精品SM在线影片, was in Yemen working as an economist for the World Bank, which had teamed up with UNICEF to improve that country鈥檚 health, education and water.

But something was missing: evidence.

鈥淭here was little data to understand if a project was successful or not,鈥 she recalled.

That realization persuaded Barham to go back to school, earn a PhD and research how to bring people out of poverty over the long term.

Much of Barham鈥檚 work now draws upon data from the Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning Programme in Bangladesh, which tracks key metrics. Barham鈥檚 recent research found that the program improves people鈥檚 height, cognition and test scores.

But the most important finding, says Barham, was that these effects spanned generations. The second generation benefitted as much as the first. The takeaway: even modest health program can have 鈥渂ig, multi-generation impacts.鈥

Students participate in school activities at the Sahabatpur Daspara Ananda school in Sahabatpur village, Bangladesh.

Students participate in school activities at the Sahabatpur Daspara Ananda school in Sahabatpur village, Bangladesh. Photo Credit: Dominic Chavez, World Bank

Principal investigators
Tania Barham (精品SM在线影片); Brachel Champion (U.S. Air Force Academy); Gisella Kagy (University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison); Jena Hamadani (icddr,b)

Funding
CU Population Center; Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS); International Initiative for Impact Evaluation; National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Collaboration + support
icddr,b, an international health research institute based in Dhaka, Bangladesh; University of Wisconsin鈥揗adison; U.S. Air Force Academy