How Are Improvements in Child Health Distributed? Examining Socio-Economic and Ethno-Linguistic Shifts in Kazakhstan, 1995-2006

Cynthia Buckley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Courtney Cuthbertson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Child health in Kazakhstan has improved over the past two decades, across a period marked by shifts in ethno-linguistic privilege, urbanization, and wealth. We examine the relationship between improvements in child health outcomes (anemia, wasting and stunting) by socio-demographic factors using the Kazakh 1995 and 1999 DHS and 2006 MICS surveys, comparing Kazakh and Russian ethno-linguistic groups. Have improvements equally benefitted both groups? Have the relative advantages associated with socio-cultural health protective factors changed over time? We find child health outcomes both reflect and challenge our understanding of shifting lines of privilege in Kazakhstan. Controlling for socio-demographic factors, children with parents of Russian ethno-linguistic identity exhibited better health outcomes in the 1990s than the children of ethno-linguistic Kazakhs, but this health protective effect wanes by 2006. Assessing the shifting lines ethno-linguistic privilege and child health highlights the resiliency and susceptibility of health protective factors during a period of socio-political change.