Distance to Healthcare Facility and Lady Health Workers’ Visits Reduce Malnutrition in under Five Children: A Case Study of a Disadvantaged Rural District in Pakistan

Muhammad Shahid, Waqar Ameer, Najma Iqbal Malik, Muhammad Babar Alam, Farooq Ahmed, Madeeha Gohar Qureshi, Huiping Zhao, Juan Yang and Sidra Zia
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Muhammad Shahid: School of Insurance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing 100029, China
Waqar Ameer: Department of Economics, Shandong Business and Technology University, Jinan 250100, China
Najma Iqbal Malik: Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan
Muhammad Babar Alam: World Health Organization, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan
Farooq Ahmed: Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100029, China
Madeeha Gohar Qureshi: Department of Economics, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Huiping Zhao: School of Insurance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing 100029, China
Juan Yang: Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, Beijing 100029, China
Sidra Zia: Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100029, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-13

Abstract: This study accesses the impact of lady health worker (LHWs) visits in the community and distance to a healthcare facility on the nutritional status of under-five children. Additionally, it explores the perceptions and attitudes of the community about the performance of LHWs. A self-administered instrument was applied to gather data on different parameters, such as children’s height, age, weight, and socioeconomic status from 384 rural households in a marginalized district of Punjab province with the help of a purposive random sampling technique. The binary logistic regression model was employed for the computation of the probability of malnutrition. The prevalences of stunting, underweight children, and wasting in the district were 34.8%, 46.1%, and 15.5%, respectively. The logistic results illustrate that those households in which LHW visits occur regularly within 15 days (OR = 0.28 with 95% CI: 0.09–0.82) have a lower probability of malnutrition prevalence among their children. The distance to the health facility shows that the odds of malnutrition were higher from 3–4 Kilometers (Km) (OR = 2.61, 95% CI: 0.85–8.14), and odds were also higher for the ≥5 km category (OR = 2.88, 95% CI: 0.94–8.82). Children from richer families had lower chances of being malnourished (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.07–1.14). Furthermore, the respondents show a positive attitude towards LHWs. They have given the first rank to their performance being beneficial to mothers and childcare, especially on checkups and safe deliveries, while they have shown negative responses and given lower ranks to their performance due to irregular visits (6th rank) and poor community awareness (7th rank). We conclude that LHWs’ regular visits to targeted households and less distance to healthcare facilities reduce the malnutrition risk in under-five children.

Keywords: distance to the healthcare facility; LHW visits; malnutrition; rural Punjab; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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