The impact of early childhood nutrient intake on later educational attainment in China

By tracking children under 5 years old for more than ten years, the paper examines the relationship between early childhood nutrient intake and children's future educational attainment using both simple regression and logistic regression models. Childhood nutritional status, as measured by share of protein in total calorie intake and height-for-age z-score, is positively associated with future educational outcomes. Children who have a larger share of protein in total calorie intake during their early childhood time have a higher probability of staying in school after nine years of compulsory education. Furthermore, considering accumulated nutrition investment through height-for-age Z scores, better-nourished children tend to achieve higher levels of education when they grow up. Therefore, the results provide support for the scale up of the current Nutrition Improvement Plan for Rural Compulsory Education Students and early childhood nutrition interventions can be adopted as an additional way to attempt to narrow the urban-rural education gap.