Determinants of undernutrition in children under 2 years of age from rural Bangladesh

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the determinants of under nutrition among under-two year old children of rural Bangladesh. The data of the National Nutrition Program baseline survey conducted in 2004 was analyzed, which included 8,885 under-two children and their mothers. Among the children studied, 41%, 35% and 18% were stunted, underweight, and wasted; and 16%, 11.5% and 3% were severely-stunted, underweight, and wasted, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that undernourished children were less likely to be female and having received measles vaccination, more likely to have suffered from diarrhea in the previous two weeks, and more likely to have older (>30 years), shorter (<145 cm), undernourished (BMI <18.5 kg/m²) and illiterate/less educated mother. Children with moderate stunting and underweight were more likely to reside in households with unhygienic toilet. Children with all forms of under nutrition were more often from families with lowest quintile of asset index. The identified associated/risk factors can be used for designing and targeting preventive programs for undernutrition.

Magnitude and factors associated with malnutrition in children 6–59 months of age in Shinille Woreda, Ethiopian Somali regional state: a cross-sectional study

“…Logically, as family size increases, the chance of becoming malnourished also increase probably due to other factors that may contribute to nutritional status, such as income of the family become less when there is increased family size. Female children were having higher risk of being stunted and wasted as compared to male children, which agrees with previous studies in Bangladesh [16], india [15,47], Iran [48] and as well as Ethiopia [47]. On the contrary, malnutrition was significantly higher among boys than among girls in Botswana [4], Karaikal District of India [49] and Ecuador [22] and as well as in Ethiopia, the national data reported that male children were slightly more likely to be stunted and wasted than female children [31].…”

“…However, in accordance with the EDHS report [31] and earlier studies in Afar region [39] and northern part of Ethiopia [40] as well as in India [15], Bangladesh [16,25] and Uganda [27], the prevalence of stunting and underweight in the current study is low. On the other hand, the prevalence of wasting is high compared to the national report [31] and other similar studies [23,24,36,38,41,42].…”

“…Similarly, undernourished children from rural Bangladesh [16] and Northwest Ethiopia were less likely to have received vaccination [43]. Non-immunized children are more likely to be frequently infected with vaccine preventable diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory infections, which are known in depleting nutrients from the body.…”

“…Several factors which are associated with malnutrition have been identified, including poor breastfeeding and child feeding practices [15][16][17][18], lack of access to enough nutritious food [19], low levels of parental education [20][21][22] and belonging to the low-income group [23][24][25]. In addition, lack of access to health services [19,22] and poor follow up of antenatal services [15] were also recognized as a key determinant of child malnutrition.…”

“…Furthermore, nutritional status is clearly compromised by diseases [26], such as HIV-infection [27], parasitic infection (e.g. giardia) [28], diarrhea and other illness (including fever, cough, common cold, pneumonia, ear infection, and/or skin diseases) [16,22,29,30].…”