Mother's education is the most important factor in socio-economic inequality of child stunting in Iran

Abstract

Objective: Malnutrition is one of the most important health problems, especially in developing countries. The present study aimed to describe the socio-economic inequality in stunting and its determinants in Iran for the first time. Design: Cross-sectional, population-based survey, carried out in 2009. Using randomized cluster sampling, weight and height of children were measured and anthropometric indices were calculated based on child growth standards given by the WHO. Socio-economic status of families was determined using principal component analysis on household assets and social specifications of families. The concentration index was used to calculate socio-economic inequality in stunting and its determinants were measured by decomposition of this index. Factors affecting the gap between socio-economic groups were recognized by using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method. Setting: Shahroud District in north-eastern Iran. Subjects: Children (n 1395) aged ,6 years. Results: The concentration index for socio-economic inequality in stunting was 20?1913. Mother's education contributed 70 % in decomposition of this index. Mean height-for-age Z-score was 20?544 and 20?335 for low and high socioeconomic groups, respectively. Mother's education was the factor contributing most to the gap between these two groups. Conclusions: There was a significant socio-economic inequality in the studied children. If mother's education is distributed equally in all the different groups of Iranian society, one can expect to eliminate 70 % of the socio-economic inequalities. Even in high socio-economic groups, the mean height-for-age Z-score was lower than the international standards. These issues emphasize the necessity of applying new interventions especially for the improvement of maternal education.

A nutritional Survey on Both Underweight and Stunting among Iranian Children between 6-24 months Old, Rafsanjan, Southeast Iran (2015)

“…Asfaw et al findings also confirmed diarrhea (at the last two weeks), was significantly associated with stunting [30]. Our findings confirm Emamian et al results that showed mothers' education is the most important factors associated with stunting [31]. Although mother' education was not associated with underweight based on our results, in order to improve physical growth of children aged 6 to 24 months, educational programs targeting on to enhance the mothers' education level seems effective.…”

Socioeconomic Inequality and Its Determinants Regarding Infant Mortality in Iran

“…Among the mentioned variables, mother's education was the most contributing factor in the explained component (62% of the explained component and 27% of the total gap); thus, the low socioeconomic group was more sensitive to changes in mother's education. Other studies also showed that infant mortality rate was higher in low-educated mothers (18, 19). Our results indicated that infant mortality rate decreased as birth weight increased.…”

“…Therefore, infants' morbidity and mortality could be prevented by breastfeeding promotion, especially in low socioeconomic groups. The Oaxaca decomposition method has been used in different health fields around the world (19, 27-29). However, for child mortality, this method has only been used by Van de Poel et al (30).…”

The prevalence and causes of visual impairment in seven‐year‐old children

“…The concentration index takes a negative value when the curve lies above the line of equality, indicating that the health variable is concentrated in the non‐affluent group (that is the low‐income families in the present study). The index takes a positive value when the variable is concentrated in the affluent group (that is the high‐income families in the present study) …”