Dr Ismael G. Muñoz, Departmental Lecturer in Evidence Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at DSPI, has received a 2025 IPUMS Research Award for outstanding published research using IPUMS Global Health data.
The award recognises the paper, ‘Grandparental Co-residence, Grandchildren Nutrition, and the Role of Demographic and Health Regimes’, published in Population and Development Review. The IPUMS Research Awards recognise innovative research that uses IPUMS harmonised international datasets to advance understanding of population, health, and social issues around the world.
Drawing on IPUMS DHS data from 29 African countries and using multilevel regression analysis, the study examines how the relationship between grandparental co-residence and children’s nutrition varies across diverse demographic and health settings in Africa.
Key findings
The findings suggest that the support grandparents provide to grandchildren changes with demographic and epidemiological transitions, especially with increases in chronic illness and age-related disability.
The study, co-written by Guillermo Gómez, Clara Bueno, Néstor Aldea, Michael Lund, and Alberto Palloni, found that:
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Living with a grandmother is, on average, associated with lower stunting rates among grandchildren, although the strength of this relationship varies across contexts.
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In countries with high fertility and mortality rates, living with grandparents – especially grandmothers – is linked to substantial nutritional benefits for children.
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These benefits tend to diminish in countries further along the demographic and health transition, where grandparents are typically older and chronic illness and disability become more common.
What is different about this research
The study demonstrates the value of combining individual-level survey data with broader population-level indicators to better understand child wellbeing across countries.
Commenting on the award, Dr Muñoz said: “We are grateful to IPUMS for this recognition. At a time when the future of key global data infrastructures such as The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) is being actively challenged and redefined, their continued availability (together with IPUMS’ harmonization efforts) remains crucial for advancing research on health and inequality across different contexts.”
Read the study in full in Population and Development Review
