Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T09:09:49.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Malnutrition and child mortality: are socioeconomic factors important?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Abbas Bhuiya
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Bogdan Wojtyniak
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Rezaul Karim
Affiliation:
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Summary

The influences of household economic condition, maternal education, sex, and nutritional status of children on mortality were examined using multivariate analytical techniques. Weights of around 1700 children aged 2–60 months in five villages of Matlab, Bangladesh, were taken during the first half of 1981. The children were followed for 18 months and their survival was recorded. The severely malnourished children had a risk of death nine times that of their counterparts with better nutritional status. Female children had a higher risk of death than the males. Mother's education and economic condition of household also showed negative relationships with the risk of death, but the effect of mother's education was modified by economic condition and sex of the children.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bairagi, R. (1980) Is income the only constraint on child nutrition in rural Bangladesh? Bull. Wld Hlth Org. 58, 767.Google ScholarPubMed
Bairagi, R. (1982) Dynamics of child nutrition in rural Bangladesh. Ecol. Food Nutr. 13, 173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhuiya, A. (1983) Levels and Differentials in Child Nutritional Status and Morbidity in a Rural Area of Bangladesh. MA thesis, Department of Demography, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Bhuiya, A., Wojtyniak, B., D'Souza, S., Nahar, L. & Shaikh, K. (1987) Measles case fatality among the under-fives: a multivariate analysis of risk factors in a rural area of Bangladesh. Soc. Sci. Med. 24, 439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhuiya, A., Wojtyniak, B., D'Souza, S. & Zimicki, S. (1986a) Socio-economic determinants of child nutritional status: boys versus girls. Food Nutr. Bull. 8, 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhuiya, A., Zimicki, S. & D'Souza, S. (1986b) Socioeconomic differentials in child nutrition and morbidity in a rural area of Bangladesh. J. trop. Pediat. 32, 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briend, A., Wojtyniak, B. & Rowland, M. G. M. (1987). Arm circumference and other factors in children at high risk of death in rural Bangladesh. Lancet, i, 725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. (1979) Education as a factor in mortality decline: an examination of Nigerian data.Popul. Stud. 33, 395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L. C., Chowdhury, A. K. M. A. & Huffman, S. L. (1980) Anthropometric assessment of energy–protein malnutrition and subsequent risk of mortality among pre-school children. Am. J. clin. Nutr. 33, 1836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L. C., Huq, E. & D'Souza, S. (1981) Sex bias in the family allocation of food and health care in rural Bangladesh. Popul. Dev. Rev. 7, 55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, L. C. & Scrimshaw, N. S. (Eds) (1983) Diarrhea and Malnutrition. Plenum, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cholera Research Laboratory (1978) Demographic Surveillance System, Matlab. Scientific Report No. 9, Cholera Research Laboratory, Dhaka, Bangladesh.Google Scholar
Da Vanzo, J. (1984) A household survey of child mortality determinants in Malaysia. Popul. Dev. Rev. 10 (Supplement), 307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desai, P., Standard, K. L., & Miall, W. E. (1970) Socioeconomic and cultural influences on child growth in rural Jamaica. J. biosoc. Sci. 2, 133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D'Souza, S. (1984) Small area intensive studies for understanding mortality and morbidity processes: two models from Bangladesh—the Matlab project and Companyganj health project.In: Data Bases for Mortality Measurement, p. 146. United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
D'Souza, S. & Bhuiya, A. (1982) Socioeconomic mortality differentials in a rural area of Bangladesh. Popul. Dev. Rev. 8, 753.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Souza, S. & Chen, L. C. (1980) Sex differentials in mortality in rural Bangladesh. Popul. Dev. Rev. 6, 257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Islam, M. S., Bhuiya, A. & Yunus, M. (1984) Socioeconomic differentials of diarrhoea morbidity and mortality in selected villages of Bangladesh. J. diarr. Dis. Res. 2, 232.Google ScholarPubMed
Keilmann, A. A. & McCord, C. (1978) Weight for age as an index of risk of death in children.Lancet, ii, 1247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinbaum, D. G., Kupper, L. L. & Morgenstern, H. (1982) Epidemiologic Research—Principles and Quantitative Methods. Lifetime Learning Publications, Belmont, California.Google Scholar
Koenig, M. A. & D'Souza, S. (1986) Sex differences in childhood mortality in rural Bangladesh. Soc. Sci. Med. 22, 15.Google Scholar
Martin, L. G., Trussell, J., Salvail, F. R. & Shah, N. M. (1983) Co-variates of child mortality in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Pakistan: an analysis based on hazard models. Popul. Stud. 37, 417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mata, L. J., Kromal, R. A., Urrutia, J. J. & Garcia, B. (1977) Effect of infection on food intake and the nutritional state: perspectives as viewed from the village. Am. J. clin. Nutr. 30, 1215.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mosley, W. H. & Chen, L. C. (1984) An analytical framework for the study of child survival in developing countries, Popul. Dev. Rev. 10 (Supplement), 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Center for Child Health (1977) NCHS Growth Curves for Children, Birth–18 years. United States. Publication No. (PHS) 78–1650, Department of Health, Education and Welfare,Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ruzicka, L. T. & Kane, P. (1986) Nutritional deficiencies as a factor in differential infant and child mortality: the experience of the countries of the Indian sub-continent. In: New Developments in the Analysis of Mortality and Causes of Death. Edited by Hansluwka, H., Lopez, A. D., Porapakkam, Y. & Prasartkul, P.. Mohidul University, Bangkok.Google Scholar
Sommer, A. & Loewenstein, M. S. (1975) Nutritional status and mortality: a prospective validation of the QUAC stick. Am. J. clin. Nutr. 28, 287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tekce, B. & Shorter, F. C. (1984) Determinants of child mortality: a study of squatter settlements in Jordan. Popul. Dev. Rev. 10 (Supplement), 257.Google Scholar
Trowbridge, F. L. & Sommer, A. (1981) Nutritional anthropometry and mortality risk. Am. J. clin. Nutr. 31, 2073.Google Scholar
Trussell, J. & Hammerslough, C. (1983) An illustrative analysis of the covariates of infant and child mortality in Sri Lanka. Demography, 20, 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Valverde, V., Nieves, I., Sloan, N., Pillett, B., Trowbridge, F., Farrell, T., Beghin, I. & Klein, R. E. (1980) Life styles and nutritional status of children from different ecological areas of El Salvador. Ecol. Food Nutr. 9, 167.Google Scholar