ACCESS TO ENERGY AND HOUSEHOLD HEALTH OUTCOMES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the effect of access to energy and household health outcomes at the micro-level in Nigeria, using the 2018 Nigerian Demographic Health Survey data. The descriptive statistics results showed that 76.16 percent of the household adopt wood as a means for energy for cooking, demonstrating strong preferences for wood-fuel traditional stoves. The infant mortality rate, low-birth weight, and pre-term births are used to proxy household health outcomes. More so, the empirical findings suggests that there is a positive significant effect of unclean energy access on infant deaths, low birth weights, and pre-term births in Nigeria. The study examined the effect of maternal behaviour such as iron intake, malaria, and adequate antenatal visits on infant deaths. Iron intake has no significant effect on infant deaths, low birth weight, however has a negative effect on pre-term births. Also, a mother that suffers from malaria is likely to have a child that would die before the first birthday, a child that weighs less than 2,500 grams (low birth weight), meanwhile, no significant effect on the risk of preterm babies. Further, sufficient antenatal visits (at least 8 visits) reduces the likelihood that a child will dies before the first birthday, will more likely not weigh 2,500 grams, however, no significant effect on the risk of preterm babies. The study, therefore, recommends that targeted policies that seek to upscale efficient cooking technologies such as improved cooking stoves should be decisively pursued. In addition, improving rural electrification and encouraging in appliances such as electric stoves and refrigerators can minimize exposure to gasses from biomass combustion and reduce the frequency and duration of cooking time; thus, allowing women to reallocate spared time into income-earning engagements.