How kinship and marriage customs influence nutritional outcomes among males and females

Malnutrition in its various forms is a serious problem in many countries, contributing to human suffering, large healthcare costs, and hampered economic and human development. While various policies to reduce malnutrition exist, such policies typically fail to consider cultural factors. Here, we contribute to the scant literature on cultural practices and nutrition, focusing on issues of gender discrimination and intra-household resource allocation. In particular, using representative panel data from Indonesia covering a period of 22 years, we analyze how ethnic-based kinship systems and marriage customs influence the nutritional status of male and female individuals. We find that patrilocal practices contribute to a higher body mass index (BMI) among males, in comparison to both males in other cultural settings and females. Matrilocality contributes to a higher BMI among females in comparison to females in other cultural settings but not in comparison to males. Bride price practices increase BMI among both male and female individuals. Quantile regressions show that the effects on increasing BMI are especially pronounced among those already overweight, whereas discrimination against females is particularly pronounced among the underweight. Our findings underline that cultural practices matter for nutritional outcomes. Better understanding the links in different cultural settings is important for effective nutrition policies, especially given the fact that different malnutrition problems coexist in many countries.

各类形式的营养不良在诸多国家均为严峻的公共卫生与社会经济问题，不仅造成民众身心疾苦，还催生高额医疗支出，阻碍经济发展与人类发展进程。尽管当前已有多种旨在缓解营养不良的政策方案，但此类举措通常未充分考量文化因素的影响。本研究针对当前文化习俗与营养领域的稀缺研究文献展开补充，重点聚焦性别歧视与家庭内部资源分配相关议题。具体而言，本研究采用覆盖印尼22年周期的代表性面板数据（panel data），分析基于族群的亲属制度与婚姻习俗如何影响不同性别人群的营养状况。研究发现，与其他文化背景下的男性群体以及女性群体相比，从夫居（patrilocal）习俗可显著提升男性的身体质量指数（Body Mass Index, BMI）。从妻居（matrilocality）习俗则可提升其他文化背景下女性群体的BMI，但与男性群体相比未展现出显著差异。聘礼（bride price）习俗可同时提升男性与女性群体的BMI水平。分位数回归（quantile regressions）分析结果显示，BMI提升的促进效应在已超重人群中尤为显著，而对女性的歧视在体重不足人群中表现得更为突出。本研究结果证实，文化习俗对营养结局存在显著影响。深入理解不同文化背景下的相关关联机制，对于制定高效精准的营养政策至关重要——鉴于诸多国家同时并存多种类型的营养不良问题，这一议题的重要性尤为凸显。