Maternal empowerment and child malnutrition in Bangladesh

Hossain, Belayet

doi:10.1080/00036846.2019.1676873

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This inclusive evidence is insufficient for the effective designing of evidence-informed policies and interventions to combat the burden of persistent childhood malnutrition in India. Studies conducted in Pakistan [ 23 ], Nepal [ 24 ], and Bangladesh [ 25 – 27 ] highlight that maternal autonomy has a strong association with the nutritional status of children, where greater maternal empowerment could potentially reduce the risk of childhood malnutrition. In Pakistan, mothers’ higher levels of education and employment status enable them to directly engage in household decision-making and buy high-quality dietary food for children, which is positively related to the nutritional status of children [ 23 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is maternal autonomy associated with child nutritional status? Evidence from a cross-sectional study in India

Paul

Saha

2022

PLoS ONE

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Despite India’s steady economic growth over recent the period, the burden of childhood malnutrition persists, contributing to higher neonatal and infant mortality. There is limited evidence available to contextualise mothers’ crucial role in childcare practices and health status in the Indian context. This study attempts to assess the association between maternal autonomy and the nutritional status of children under five. We used samples of 38,685 mother-child pairs from the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), conducted in 2015–16. We considered three widely used indicators of child nutrition as outcome variables: stunting, wasting, and underweight. Maternal autonomy (measured from three dimensions: household decision-making, freedom of physical movement, and access to economic resources/control over assets) was the key predictor variable, and various child demographics, maternal, and household characteristics were considered control variables. Stepwise binary logistic regression models were performed to examine the association. Of study participants, 38%, 21%, and 35% of children were stunted, wasted, and underweight, respectively. Our results (models 1 to 4) indicate that mothers with greater autonomy were significantly associated with lower odds of malnourished children. After controlling for all potential confounding variables (in model 5), maternal autonomy had a statistically insignificant association with children’s stunting (Odds ratio [OR]: 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87, 1.00) and wasting (OR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85, 1.00). However, a significant relationship (though marginally) was retained with underweight (OR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.88, 0.99). In addition, socio-demographic characteristics such as child age, birth order, maternal education, maternal BMI, place of residence and household wealth quintile were found to be strong predictors of child nutritional status. Future policies should not only inform women’s empowerment programmes but also emphasise effective interventions toward improving female educational attainment and nutritional status of women, as well as addressing socioeconomic inequalities in order to combat the persistent burden of childhood malnutrition in India.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is maternal autonomy associated with child nutritional status? Evidence from a cross-sectional study in India

Paul

Saha

2022

PLoS ONE

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“…In the past 5 years, four review papers have summarized the literature on maternal empowerment (defined as women's ability to make strategic life choices) and child nutritional status (Carlson, Kordas, & Murray‐Kolb, 2015; Cunningham et al, 2015; Hossain, 2020; Pratley, 2016; Santoso et al, 2019): all reported that mothers' empowerment was generally associated with better child nutritional status, but with many reported associations not reaching statistical significance and many inconsistencies between studies. A major obstacle to interpreting this literature is the wide variety of definitions and tools used in assessing empowerment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A major obstacle to interpreting this literature is the wide variety of definitions and tools used in assessing empowerment. In most studies ‘empowerment’ has included some assessment of decision‐making autonomy (Aslam & Kingdon, 2012; Desai & Jain, 1994; Hossain, 2020; Shroff, Griffiths, Adair, Suchindran, & Bentley, 2009); some studies have included women's mobility (Sethuraman, Lansdown, & Sullivan, 2006), and others have relied on nonspecific indicators like education, employment and household size (Shafiq et al, 2019). In developing the set of tools used in the current study, we took a broader approach to assess a comprehensive set of skills and attributes that aimed to distinguish women who are able to take optimal advantage of available resources to care for their children from those with similar resources who are less capable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Important for breastfeeding behaviours (Haider, Ashworth, Kabir, & Huttly, 2000). The functions of social support are informational, instrumental, emotional and companionship (Cohen, Mermelstein, Kamarck, & Hoberman, 1985); this type of social support, when provided through care group leaders (Hossain, 2020) or by peer counsellors, is associated with child health (Saleem, Mahmud, Baig-Ansari, & Zaidi, 2014).…”

Section: Perceived Physical Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal caregiving capabilities are associated with child linear growth in rural Zimbabwe

Tome

Mbuya²,

Makasi

et al. 2020

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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Between birth and 2 years, children's well-being depends on the quality of care they receive from caregivers, primarily their mothers. We developed a quantitative survey instrument to assess seven psychosocial characteristics of women that determine their caregiving ability ('maternal capabilities': physical health, mental health, decision-making autonomy, social support, mothering self-efficacy, workload and time stress, and gender norm attitudes). We measured maternal capabilities in 4,025 mothers and growth in their 4,073 children participating in the Sanitation Hygiene Infant Nutrition Efficacy (SHINE) trial in rural Zimbabwe. We used generalized estimating equation models with exchangeable correlation structure to test the association between each maternal capability during pregnancy, and infant length-forage Z (LAZ) at 18 months, accounting only for within-cluster correlation and intervention arms in unadjusted analyses and for potential confounders in adjusted analyses to examine the association between each capability, assessed during pregnancy, with child LAZ at 18 months of age. In adjusted models, each unit increase in gender norm attitudes score (reflecting more equitable gender norm attitudes) was associated with

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“…Existing literature has suggested that the level of urbanization, community socio-economic status, and living condition significantly affects early childhood malnutrition [3,4] . Maternal education and empowerment, breastfeeding practice, mother's health, and dietary practiceare significant factors of child nutrition [5] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Duration of Father Out-Migration and Its Impact on Nutritional Status of Left-Behind Children: A Cross-Sectional Study in Rural EAG States in India

Rahaman¹,

Hossain²,

Kundu³

et al. 2021

IJPHRD

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Millions of children are left behind due to parental migration. Most out-migrants are unskilled male labour from Empowered Action Group (EAG) states in India.Therefore, the present study tried to compare nutritional outcomes (mainly stunting, wasting, and underweight) of left behind under five (Under-5) children based on the duration of the father migration in India's EAG states. The study used the National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS 4) data. The multivariate logistic regression models were used to measure the unadjusted and adjusted effects of the duration of father's migration on child malnutrition in the study area. The present study also suggested no significant effect duration of father's migration on under-5 children nutritionexcept underweight. The underweight prevalence was 14% less likely (OR: 0.86 95% CI 0.76-0.97) among the leftbehind children with the duration of father migration more than 12 months compared to their counterpart. The nutritional status was low among all under-five children irrespective of father migration duration in the study area. Still, the under-5 children's malnutrition prevailed noticeably among socio-economically disadvantaged groups. There is a need to implement unique programs and policies related to children's nutrition to eliminate child malnutrition's burning issues among left-behind households.

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Maternal empowerment and child malnutrition in Bangladesh

Cited by 13 publications

References 51 publications

Is maternal autonomy associated with child nutritional status? Evidence from a cross-sectional study in India

Is maternal autonomy associated with child nutritional status? Evidence from a cross-sectional study in India

Maternal caregiving capabilities are associated with child linear growth in rural Zimbabwe

Duration of Father Out-Migration and Its Impact on Nutritional Status of Left-Behind Children: A Cross-Sectional Study in Rural EAG States in India

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