Factors Associated with Stunting among Children Aged 0 to 59 Months from the Central Region of Mozambique

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the major socio-demographic, health, and environmental determinants of stunting among children aged 0–59 months from the Tete province (Mozambique) and offering useful information for future healthcare strategies and interventions. A case-control study was conducted among 282 (162 boys; 120 girls) children under five years of age from the central region of Mozambique between 1 May and 3 June 2014. Children with stunting (HAZ < −2 SD according to the WHO Child Growth Standards in 2006) were considered as cases and those who had a Z-score < −2 SD were considered as controls. We collected data related to mothers and children and their environment, and they were assessed in two groups to find a possible association. The software used for data analysis was the SPSS® (version, 21.0) using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, chi-square analyses, bivariate comparisons, and stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis. The results showed that birth weight, mother’s educational status, maternal occupation, living in a rural area, family size, number of children under five years of age in the household, cooking with charcoal, inhabiting wooden or straw housing or housing without proper floors, overall duration of breastfeeding as well as duration of exclusive breastfeeding, and time of initiation of complementary feeding were significantly related to stunting. Thus, appropriate nutritional intervention programmes considering these determinants and the dissemination of knowledge at the population level related to undernutrition are necessary to ameliorate the children´s nutritional status.

Factors associated with stunting among children below five years of age in Zambia: evidence from the 2014 Zambia demographic and health survey

“…In the present study, although the highest OR for stunting correspond to children belonging to families with six or more children the same was not confirmed in the multiple analysis after adjustment by other factors. These results are contrary to other studies [9,22,29,30], which observed a significant relationship between stunting and number of under five children in a household.…”

“…The prevalence of stunting among children under five was 40% and was more prevalent among male children than female children. This finding is similar to other studies conducted around the world that have also documented higher prevalence of stunting in boys than in girls [7][8][9]. According to Chirande et al [5] sex differences could also be attributed to behavioural patterns of communities for instance, favouritism towards daughters.…”

Factors affecting stunting among under-five children in Bangladesh

“…Research on stunting, from the Bangladesh perspective, can also be conducted for seeking explanations of why the stunting status of children varies across different divisions within Bangladesh. stunted [41,42]. The findings of this study confirm this argument in the sense that due to inadequate income, children from poor income families have higher odds in terms of switching from better to worse stunting status in comparison to children from middle income and wealthy families.…”

Sanitation Behavior and Risk of Stunting: Understanding the Discourse of a Public Service Announcement

“…Open defecation has been closely linked to higher risk for stunting (Danaei et al, 2016;García Cruz et al, 2017;Torlesse et al, 2016;WHO, UNICEF, & USAID, 2015) because the human fecal substances provide pathways for flies and domestic animals to spread bacteria into residences and eating utensils and further lead to diarrhea. For children in their early childhood, frequently dealing with diarrhea increases the likelihood of stunting as they lose the nutrient they have absorbed and the depletion of their intestinal wall (Mbuya & Humphrey, 2016).…”