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Mother’s education level is associated with anthropometric failure among 3- to 12-year-old rural children in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2020

Pikli Khanra ,
Kaushik Bose  and
Raja Chakraborty Open the ORCID record for Raja Chakraborty [Opens in a new window]
Pikli Khanra
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India
Kaushik Bose
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, India
Raja Chakraborty*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Dinabandhu Mahavidyalaya, Bongaon, West Bengal, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Maternal education plays a central role in children’s health and nutrition. Living conditions and socioeconomic status are linked with mother’s education, which in turn determines the health and development of a child. The Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) is a single indicator that reflects overall rate of three conventional indices of undernutrition: underweight, stunting and wasting. The study was undertaken among 621 rural Bengalee children (308 boys and 313 girls) aged 3–12 years from the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. Height (cm) and weight (kg) were recorded and NCHS standard values used to calculate z-scores (<–2SD). The same data were used to calculate CIAF as an indicator of ‘anthropometric failure’ (AF) or undernutrition. The prevalence of AF among the children was 59.40%. Chi-squared analysis was employed to evaluate the significance of differences in the prevalence of CIAF between the sexes and the association between nutritional indicators and socioeconomic parameters in the two sexes. Multiple binary logistic regression (MBLR) analyses (including the forward stepwise method) were also performed. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the risk of having AF. Results showed that mother’s education was significantly associated with undernutrition (AF) controlling for the other factors considered. A very high prevalence of undernutrition is persisting in this region of India despite national nutritional supplementation programmes being operational. More attention to the improvement of living conditions and hygiene, and more particularly the education of women, in this population might be effective in attaining improved child growth and health.

Keywords

Anthropometric failureCIAFMother’s education
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 53 , Issue 6 , November 2021 , pp. 856 - 867
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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