Child marriage, defined as marriage before age 18 and prevalent in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, constitutes an adverse childhood experience with potential long-term impacts on women’s physical and psychological health. This study examines the relationship between child marriage and women’s nutritional status in adulthood, measured by body mass index (BMI)-based categories. Using data on 727,903 married women (ages 20 to 49) from the 2015-16 and 2019-21 waves of the India National Family Health Survey, we found that in baseline models, child marriage was negatively associated with overweight and obesity. However, after adjusting for socioeconomic attributes, women married as children were 9.0% less likely to be underweight and 1.14 and 1.30 times more likely to be overweight or obese, respectively. These results illustrate a classic case of Simpson’s paradox where aggregate data hides the true nature of a relationship, which is revealed in within-group exploration.
Datta, Biplab and Fazlul, Ishtiaque, The Role of Child Marriage on Women’s Nutritional Status in Adulthood (June 23, 2023). Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5297430
