PSC In The News
Geronimus discusses causes, potential solutions to racial disparities in infant mortality
Kalousova and Burgard find credit card debt increases likelihood of foregoing medical care
Highlights
Trainees Nelson Saldaña, Sarah Seelye and Ellen Compernolle awarded PSC grants
Arline Geronimus wins Excellence in Research Award from School of Public Health
Yu Xie to give DBASSE's David Lecture April 30, 2013 on "Is American Science in Decline?"
U-M grad programs do well in latest USN&WR "Best" rankings
Back in September
Follow us Health Capital and the Prenatal Environment: The Effect of Maternal Fasting During Pregnancy
Douglas Almond (with Bhash Mazumder) (Economics Department, Columbia University)
04-12-2010, at noon in room 6050 ISR-Thompson.
We use the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as a natural experiment in fasting and fetal health. In Michigan births 1989-2006, we find prenatal exposure to Ramadan among Arab mothers results in lower birthweight and reduced gestation length. Exposure to Ramadan in the first month of gestation is also associated with a sizable reduction in the number of male births. In Census data for Uganda, Iraq, and the US we find strong associations between in utero exposure to Ramadan and the likelihood of being disabled as an adult. Effects are particularly large for mental (or learning) disabilities. We also find significant effects on proxies for wealth, earnings, the sex composition of the adult population, and more suggestive evidence of effects on schooling. We find no evidence that negative selection in conceptions during Ramadan accounts for our findings, suggesting that avoiding Ramadan exposure during pregnancy is costly or the long-term effects of fasting unknown.