The Long-Term Health Effects of Early-Life Malaria Exposure

This paper attempts to examine how malaria eradication in Taiwan during the 1950s, which successfully wiped out malaria within a short period, affected long-term health. Relying on three data sets covering the entire population of Taiwan, we construct diverse measures of health, including health-care utilization, functional abilities, chronic diseases, and catastrophic illnesses. Our results indicate that people who experienced larger reductions in early-life malaria exposure tend to have better health status as adults, especially women. Our results suggest a sizable cost saving from the eradication program that improves early-life environment and helps to avoid costly diseases at a later point.