Intergenerational Impacts of Stunting among Filipino Women: Interplay of Social and Biological Pathways

Chronic childhood undernutrition has adverse and long-lasting reproductive health costs for women in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Women who were stunted in early childhood usually experience disrupted puberty, often characterized as late maturation. Deviations from normal ranges of puberty onset can further impact a woman’s fertility outcomes. In this paper, we used longitudinal data from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) to understand the intergenerational effects of childhood stunting on young Filipino women. Here we investigate a path from the time a girl is stunted in childhood to the birthweight of her first offspring, intending to unravel social and biological risk factors of low birthweight (LBW). This study was the first to model a path from stunting to low birthweight through maturation, sexual initiation, and age at first pregnancy. The findings of this paper provide evidence that stunting at 24 months is a significant risk factor for low birthweight in the first birth.Bachelor of Science in Public Healt