How important are community characteristics in influencing children׳s nutritional status? Evidence from Malawi population-based household and community surveys

Abstract

Using the 2004 data from the Malawi Integrated Household Survey and the Malawi Community Survey, this study investigates the influence of community characteristics on stunting among children under five years of age in a rural context. Multilevel logistic regression modelling on 4284 children with stunting as the dependent variable shows that availability of daily markets and lineage defined in terms of patrilineal or matrilineal communities were significant community determinants of childhood stunting in Malawi. There were significant differences in socio-economic status between household heads from matrilineal and patrilineal communities. Implementation of strategies that empower communities and households economically such as supporting the establishment of community daily markets and promoting household income generating opportunities can effectively reduce the burden of childhood stunting in Malawi.

Herd Protection from Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Interventions

“…All of these studies used cross-sectional national household surveys such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (dhsprogram.org) and typically used the percentage of households in a survey cluster with an improved source of drinking water as an independent variable. Six studies from three publications 17,33,34 assessed the effect of communitylevel drinking water on child or infant mortality by reconstructing cohorts of children based on 5-or 10-year birth histories, two studies 35,36 assessed child malnutrition (height for age), and one study assessed low birth weight. 37 Most showed a protective effect, though the results were not always consistent.…”

Maternal high-risk fertility behavior and association with chronic undernutrition among children under age 5 y in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal: Do poor children have a higher risk?

“…However because the subjects were a large number of people in communities and there is lack of trained personal and facilities, DHS/NFHS avoided to perform laboratory assessment. Fifth, although availability of food and custom are important determinants of undernutrition, 64,65 information on these variables was not available from DHS/NFHS. Several countries in South Asia such as Bangladesh, India and Nepal, although a variety of animal foods are used by economically privileged people, for a large section of the population animal foods do not constitute part of their diet due to economic reasons.…”

Culture and domestic violence amongst ever-married women in Malawi: an analysis of emotional, sexual, less-severe physical and severe physical violence

“…Interestingly the Tumbuka, Nkhonde and Tonga ethnic group, the majority of which practise bride price (lobola) did not have higher odds of experiencing violence compared to the Chewa, Mang'anja and Nyanja that do not practice bride price (Gray, 1960). The Lomwe follow a matrilineal lineage system but the Sena are patrilineal (Chikhungu et al, 2014). This finding suggests that there are potentially other factors within these ethnic groupings that may explain why they have relatively higher levels of violence compared to the Chewa, Mang'anja and Nyanja.…”

“…Although polygyny is a common cultural practice across all ethnic groups in Malawi, it is predominant in the Northern region amongst patrilineal communities (Berge et al, 2013;Chikhungu et al, 2014). In polygynous marriages, first wives get less support and attention from their husbands once their husbands acquire a new wife (MHRC, 2006).…”