Landholding, wealth and risk of blinding malnutrition in rural Bangladeshi households

N. Cohen, M. A. Jalil, H. Rahman, M. A. Matin, J. Sprague, J. Islam, J. Davison, E. Leemhuis de Regt and M. Mitra

Social Science & Medicine, 1985, vol. 21, issue 11, 1269-1272

Abstract: The 1982-1983 Bangladesh nutritional blindness study visited 11,618 rural households and examined 18,660 preschool-age children in an effort to determine the prevalence and determinants of eye lesions and loss of sight due to vitamin A deficiency (xerophthalmia). Risk of xerophthalmia was significantly higher for children from households without any of the indicators of relative wealth used. Almost 80% of blind children came from landless households, and even a very small garden reduced considerably the chances of a household having a xerophthalmic child. Poorer households with access to less than 0.3 acres land or no garden or without a tin roof, wristwatch, radio or cycle were at least twice as likely as their more fortunate neighbours to have a young child with any type of xerophthalmia. Taking account of such socio-environmental risk factor weightings would direct the scarce resources of intervention programmes to households and children who most need them.

Date: 1985
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