Program > Papers by speaker > Farquharson Christine

The health effects of early interventions: Evidence from Sure Start
Sarah Cattan  1@  , Christine Farquharson  1@  , Gabriella Conti  2@  , Rita Ginja  3@  
1 : Institute for Fiscal Studies  (IFS)
7 Ridgmount Street London WC1E 7AE -  United Kingdom
2 : University College of London [London]  (UCL)
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT -  United Kingdom
3 : University of Bergen  (UIB)
Postboks 7800, NO-5020 Bergen -  Norway

Early intervention programmes to deliver educational, social, and health services are widely recognised as a potentially effective way of promoting better health and preventing the development of costly health problems. While existing evidence demonstrates the potential benefits of targeted and often intensive interventions, we find that a fully universal, area-based intervention to bring together education, employment, and health services in England has benefits for childhood obesity and hospitalisations. We find that the introduction of Sure Start reduced the probability of being overweight at age 5 by one percentage point (10% of baseline), with stronger effects for white boys. Sure Start also reduced hospitalisations for respiratory illness and infections, consistent with predictions that exposure to additional pathogens would strengthen children's immune systems.


Online user: 3 Privacy
Loading...