Health education for microcredit clients in Peru: a randomized controlled trial

BMC Public Health

Table 4 Child anthropometric measures and health status at follow-up, by study arm

	Control	Treatment	β-coefficient (95% CI)	n	p-value ^a
Child Anthropometric Measures ^b
Hemoglobin, g/dL	11.5 ± 1.2	11.5 ± 1.1	0.01 (-0.23, 0.26)	312	0.94
Anemia ^c (%)	49.2	48.0	0.02 (-0.08, 0.12)	312	0.70
Weight-for-age, Z-score	-0.71 ± 1.1	-0.73 ± 1.0	-0.02 (-0.26, 0.23)	309	0.87
Underweight ^d (%)	10.6	7.7	-0.04 (-0.11, 0.03)	301	0.28
Length/height-for-age, Z-score	-1.3 ± 1.3	-1.4 ± 1.6	-0.14 (-0.51, 0.23)	283	0.46
Stunting ^e (%)	24.3	28.4	0.01 (-0.08, 0.11)	264	0.77
BMI-for-age, Z-score	0.13 ± 1.3	0.29 ± 1.4	0.18 (-0.15, 0.51)	290	0.29
Overweight ^f (%)	17.5	25.7	0.05 (-0.05, 0.15)	265	0.31
Reported Child Health Status ^g
Diarrhea	15.8	22.3	0.05 (-0.03, 0.13)	439	0.19
Bloody diarrhea	15.3	4.2	-0.11 (-0.24, 0.02)	85	0.09
Days of diarrhea (mean ± SD)	3.6 ± 5.0	2.6 ± 1.6	-1.04 (-2.54, 0.45)	99	0.17
Diarrhea requiring medical attention	38.4	40.8	0.02 (-0.21, 0.25)	86	0.88
Cough in past month	36.7	40.2	0.02 (-0.07, 0.12)	434	0.61
Days of cough (mean ± SD)	5.4 ± 3.6	5.3 ± 3.6	-0.01 (-1.14, 1.13)	175	0.99
Cough causing difficulty breathing	33.7	33.7	-0.01 (-0.16, 0.14)	167	0.90
Cough requiring medical attention	58.4	58.1	0.05 (-0.11, 0.21)	166	0.57

^a Multivariate analyses clustered at the parent level controlling for child age and gender, client gender, age, and education, household assets, and loan officer.
^b Results are given as mean ± SD, unless noted otherwise. These analyses also controlled for the baseline value of the variable in question.
^c A hemoglobin of < 11 g/dL is considered anemic [29].
^d Underweight is a weight-for-age > 2 SD below the WHO reference [28].
^e Stunting is a length-for-age > 2 SD below the WHO reference [28].
^f Overweight is a BMI above the 85^th percentile for the child's age [31].
^g Results are given as prevalence during past month (%), unless noted otherwise.

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