ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
Effects of short birth spacing on birth-order differences in child stunting: Evidence from India.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gender bias in fertility choices: how son preference increases the risk of short birth intervals in India.Tropical medicine and health · 2026Article
- The world's longest running civil war and chronic childhood undernutrition in Myanmar: a propensity score matched analysis.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- Prenatal and postnatal droughts interact in shaping cognitive development.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Multilevel Analysis of Severe Anthropometric Failure among Under-Five Children in Benin: A Cross-Sectional Study Using 2017 to 2018 Demographic and Health Survey Data.Annals of global health · 2026Article
- Determinants of stunting among 0-59 months children in Lesotho: A multilevel analysis of 2023/24 Demographic and Health Survey.PloS one · 2026Article
- Immunization attributable burden of stunting among under-five children in India, 2005-2021.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Estimating pathways affecting stunting in families with children under aged 5 years.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Prevalence and trends of coexisting forms of malnutrition and its associated factors among children aged 6-59 months in South and Southeast Asia, 1996-2022: a cross-sectional time series study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of short inter-birth intervals and associated factors among women of reproductive age: evidence from a nationally representative survey in Tanzania.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- A qualitative analysis of women's reproductive agency and postpartum family planning in Maharashtra, India.PloS one · 2025Article
- Who actualizes postpartum contraceptive intentions? A trajectory cluster analysis.Reproductive health · 2024Article
- Geo-spatial analysis of high-risk fertility behaviors and child stunting in Ethiopia.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Geographical altitude and stunting among children aged under 5 years in India.BMJ nutrition, prevention & health · 2024Article
- Exploring the paradox of Muslim advantage in undernutrition among under-5 children in India: a decomposition analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2023Article
- Article
- Cultural and Contextual Drivers of Triple Burden of Malnutrition among Children in India.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Analyzing determinants from both compositional and contextual level impeding desired linear growth of children in Indian context.BMC nutrition · 2023Article
- Estimating the impact of birth interval on under-five mortality in east african countries: a propensity score matching analysis.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Observational
- Relationship between Birth Order and Postnatal Growth until 4 Years of Age: The Japan Environment and Children's Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Do firstborn children have a height advantage? Empirical findings have found mostly that, yes, second or higher-order children often lag behind firstborns in height outcomes, especially in developing countries. However, empirical investigations of birth-order effects on child height overlook the potential impact that birth spacing can have. We provide an explanation for the negative birth-order effect on stunting outcomes for young Indian children and show it is driven by short preceding-birth spacing. We find that firstborn children are taller than children of higher birth order: The height-for-age gap for third (or higher)-order children is twice the gap for children second in birth order. However, this pattern is observed when spacing between later-born children and their immediate elder siblings is fewer than 3 y. Interestingly, the firstborn height advantage disappears when later-born children are born at least 3 y after their elder siblings. Thus, our findings indicate that spacing length between children explains differences in height, over birth order. Although India's family planning policy has resulted in a substantial reduction in total fertility, its achievement in spacing subsequent births has been less impressive. In showing that spacing can alleviate or aggravate birth-order effects on attained height, our study fills an evidence gap: Reducing fertility alone may not be sufficient in overcoming negative birth-order effects. To reduce the detrimental effects of birth order on child stunting, policy responses-and therefore research priorities-require a stronger focus on increasing the time period between births.
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