ARV Treatment and Time Allocation to Household Tasks: Evidence from Kenya

Abstract

Using longitudinal survey data collected over a period of two years, this paper examines the impact of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment on the time allocated to various household tasks by treated HIV-positive patients and their household members. We study outcomes such as time devoted to housework, firewood and water collection, as well as care-giving and care-seeking. As treatment improves the health and productivity of patients, we find that female patients in particular are able to increase the amount of time they devote to water and firewood collection. This increased productivity of patients coupled with large decreases in the amount of time they spend seeking medical care leads to a reduced burden on children and other household members. We find evidence that boys and girls in treated patients’ households devote less time to housework and other chores. These results suggest that the provision of ARV treatment generates a wide variety of benefits to households in resource-poor settings.

On gender and growth: The role of intergenerational health externalities and women's occupational constraints

“…In Madagascar and Benin, women spend 164 hours per year and 273 hours per year, respectively, collecting water; this corresponds to 14 and 23 hours a month, or 8.8 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively, of monthly working time (Blackden and Wodon (2006)). In Kenya, as documented by d 'Adda et al (2009), women devote 3.8 hours a week collecting water (compared to 1.3 for men), or equivalently 15.2 hours a month (compared to 5.2 hours a month for men). In Guinea, lack of access to water also imposes a very high time cost on women (Bardasi and Wodon (2009)).…”

“…For instance, Ilahi (2001) found that women living in rural Peru who rely on firewood or coal as a source of energy tend to allocate a smaller proportion of their time to self-employment activities and a greater proportion of time to housework, compared to women who use gas or electricity. In Kenya, as documented by d 'Adda et al (2009), women devote 2.7 hours a week collecting firewood (compared to 0.3 for men), in addition to the almost 4 hours a week that they spend collecting water.…”

“…school enrollment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. 55 More specific evidence on how households adjust the intra-family allocations regarding school and work time of children in the face of disease within the family includes Corrigan, Glomm, and Mendez (2005), and D 'Adda et al (2009) for Kenya. The latter study for instance found that changes in intra-household allocations of time devoted to non-market labor activities (primarily household tasks such as cooking and washing, and water and firewood collection, which are often carried out by mothers and their daughters) is an important coping strategy when the individual afflicted by illness is a working-age adult.…”

Medical Pluralism Predicts Non-ART Use among Parents in Need of ART: A Community Survey in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“…ART effectively delays mortality 2 , reduces horizontal 3 – 5 and vertical 6 HIV-transmission, prevents HIV-associated tuberculosis 7 and enhances the quality of life for HIV-positive people 8 , 9 . South Africa has the largest ART programme in the world, with 83% coverage 10 .…”

Task-shifting alcohol interventions for HIV+ persons in Kenya: a cost-benefit analysis

“…CBT—in reducing alcohol consumption—has been identified as a method to increased ARV adherence [71–73]. ARV adherence and its resulting medical and functional benefits, in turn, have been shown to increase labor force participation (LFP) [74–77] and increase household productivity (HP) [78]. Thus, through a mechanism of ARV adherence, CBT can increase LFP and HP.…”