The rise and fall of SES gradients in heights around the world.

We use data from a large sample of low- and middle-income countries to study the association (or "gradient") between child height and maternal education. We show that the gap in height between high- and low-SES children is small at birth, rises throughout childhood, and declines in adolescence as girls and boys go through puberty. This inverted U-shaped pattern is consistent with a degree of catch-up in linear height among children of low- relative to high-SES families, in partial contrast to the argument that height deficits cannot be overcome after the early years of life.

Agreement between dried blood spots and HemoCue in Tamil Nadu, India.

India retains the world's largest burden of anemia despite decades of economic growth and anemia prevention programming. Accurate screening and estimates of anemia prevalence are critical for successful anemia control. Evidence is mixed on the performance of HemoCue, a point-of-care testing device most widely used for large-scale surveys.

Demand for Information on Environmental Health Risk, Mode of Delivery, and Behavioral Change: Evidence from Sonargaon, Bangladesh.

Millions of villagers in Bangladesh are exposed to arsenic by drinking contaminated water from private wells. Testing for arsenic can encourage switching from unsafe wells to safer sources. This study describes results from a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in 112 villages in Bangladesh to evaluate the effectiveness of different test selling schemes at inducing switching from unsafe wells.

Child height and intergenerational transmission of health: Evidence from ethnic Indians in England.

A large literature documents a widespread prevalence of small stature among Indian children as well as adults. We show that a height gap relative to a richer population such as whites in England also exists, although substantially reduced, among adult immigrants of Indian ethnicity in England. This is despite positive height selection into migration, demonstrated by ethnic Indian adults in England being on average 6-7cm taller than in India.

Micro-Loans, Insecticide-Treated Bednets, and Malaria: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Orissa, India.

We describe findings from the first large-scale cluster randomized controlled trial in a developing country that evaluates the uptake of a health-protecting technology, insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs), through micro-consumer loans, as compared to free distribution and control conditions. Despite a relatively high price, 52 percent of sample households purchased ITNs, highlighting the role of liquidity constraints in explaining earlier low adoption rates. We find mixed evidence of improvements in malaria indices.

Impact of a Randomized Controlled Trial in Arsenic Risk Communication on Household Water-Source Choices in Bangladesh.

We conducted a randomized controlled trial in rural Bangladesh to examine how household drinking-water choices were affected by two different messages about risk from naturally occurring groundwater arsenic. Households in both randomized treatment arms were informed about the arsenic level in their well and whether that level was above or below the Bangladesh standard for arsenic. Households in one group of villages were encouraged to seek water from wells below the national standard.

A cluster-based randomized controlled trial promoting community participation in arsenic mitigation efforts in Bangladesh.

Objective: To reduce arsenic (As) exposure, we evaluated the effectiveness of training community members to perform water arsenic (WAs) testing and provide As education compared to sending representatives from outside communities to conduct these tasks.

Methods: We conducted a cluster based randomized controlled trial of 20 villages in Singair, Bangladesh. Fifty eligible respondents were randomly selected in each village.

Microcredit, family planning programs, and contraceptive behavior: evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia.

The impact of community-based family planning programs and access to credit on contraceptive use, fertility, and family size preferences has not been established conclusively in the literature. We provide additional evidence on the possible effect of such programs by describing the results of a randomized field experiment whose main purpose was to increase the use of contraceptive methods in rural areas of Ethiopia. In the experiment, administrative areas were randomly allocated to one of three intervention groups or to a fourth control group.

High prevalence of Wuchereria bancrofti infection as detected by immunochromatographic card testing in five districts of Orissa, India, previously considered to be non-endemic.

India accounts for over one-third of the world's burden of lymphatic filariasis (LF). Although most coastal districts of Orissa state (eastern India) are LF-endemic, the western districts of Orissa are considered non-endemic. During a large-scale insecticide-treated bed net/microfinance trial, we tested one randomly selected adult (age 15-60 years) for LF from a random sample of microfinance-member households in five districts of western Orissa, using immunochromatographic card testing (ICT).

Growth reference charts and the nutritional status of Indian children.

We evaluate the growth performance of Indian children of age 0-3 using data from the 1998-1999 National Family and Health Survey, making use of the new child growth standards developed by the World Health Organization' Multicentre Growth Reference Study. We find that the new charts lead to an increase of 4.2 million in the estimated number of stunted children, and an increase of 2.