Sociodemographic inequities in nurturing care for early childhood development across Brazilian municipalities

Buccini, Gabriela, Coelho Kubo, Stefanie Eugênia Dos Anjos, Pedroso, Jéssica, Bertoldo, Juracy, Sironi, Alberto, Barreto, Marcos Ennes ORCID: 0000-0002-7818-1855, Pérez‐escamilla, Rafael, Venancio, Sonia Isoyama and Gubert, Muriel Bauermann (2022) Sociodemographic inequities in nurturing care for early childhood development across Brazilian municipalities. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 18 (S2). ISSN 1740-8695

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Abstract

Providing an enabling nurturing care environment for early childhood development (ECD) that cuts across the five domains of the Nurturing Care Framework (i.e., good health, adequate nutrition, opportunities for early learning, security and safety and responsive caregiving) has become a global priority. Brazil is home to approximately 18.5 million children under 5 years of age, of which 13% are at risk of poor development due to socio-economic inequalities. We explored whether the Early Childhood Friendly Municipal Index (IMAPI) can detect inequities in nurturing care ECD environments across the 5570 Brazilian municipalities. We examined the validity of the IMAPI scores and conducted descriptive analyses for assessing sociodemographic inequities by nurturing care domains and between and within regions. The strong correlations between school achievement (positive) and socially vulnerable children (negative) confirmed the IMAPI as a multidimensional nurturing care indicator. Low IMAPI scores were more frequent in the North (72.7%) and Northeast (63.3%) regions and in small (47.7%) and medium (43.3%) size municipalities. Conversely, high IMAPI scores were more frequent in the more prosperous South (52.9%) and Southeast (41.2%) regions and in metropolitan areas (41.2%). The security and safety domain had the lowest mean differences (MDs) among Brazilian regions (MD = 5) and population size (MD = 3). Between-region analyses confirmed inequities between the North/Northeast and South/Southeast. The biggest within-region inequity gaps were found in the Northeast (from −22 to 15) and the North (−21 to 19). The IMAPI distinguished the nurturing care ECD environments across Brazilian municipalities and can inform equitable and intersectoral multilevel decision making.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17408709
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors
Divisions:	Statistics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
Date Deposited:	13 Sep 2021 15:30
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 05:36
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111909

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