Thisstudy analyzesthe relationships between maternalriskfactors present at the time of daughters’ births—namely, young mother, high parity, and short preceding birth interval—and their subsequent adult developmental, reproductive, and socioeconomic outcomes. Pseudo-cohorts are constructed using female respondent data from 189 cross-sectional rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 50 developing countries between 1986 and 2013. Generalized linear models are estimated to test the relationships and calculate cohort-level outcome proportions with the systematic elimination of the three maternal risk factors. The simulation exercise for the full sample of 2,546 pseudo-cohorts shows that the combined elimination of risk exposures is associated with lower mean proportions of adult daughters experiencing child mortality, having a small infant at birth, and having a low body mass index. Among sub-Saharan African cohorts, the estimated changes are larger, particularly for years of schooling. The pseudo-cohort approach can enable longitudinal testing of life course hypotheses using large-scale, standardized, repeated cross-sectional data and with considerable resource efficiency.
WHGI Publications & Resources
Maternal Risk Exposure and Adult Daughters’ Health, Schooling, and Employment: A Constructed Cohort Analysis of 50 Developing Countries
Authors: Amy O. Tsui, Qingfeng Li
Publication Year: 2016
Link to File: https://bmgi.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/files_live/Maternal%20Risk%20Exposure%20and%20Adult%20Daughters%20Health%20Schooling%20and%20Employment%20A%20Constructed%20Cohort%20Analysis%20of%2050%20Developing%20Countries%20%28002%29.pdf