Childhood stunting in Tajikistan: quantifying the association with wash food security health and care practices

Rouselle Lavado, William Seitz and Alessia Thiebaud

No 124407, Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Discussion Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: More than 20 percent of children under the age of 5 in Tajikistan are stunted. A large literature finds that stunting and undernutrition in early childhood are commonly the result of several contributing environmental, food, hygiene, and health-related factors. However, quantifying these interactions is usually not possible due to the difficulty of collecting sufficient data on each dimension in a single survey. To address this issue, we integrated the samples of two separate nationally representative surveys conducted simultaneously in Tajikistan in late 2016. This design allows analysis of the determinants of undernutrition in a unified framework. The results show strong associations between undernutrition and the number of food calories consumed, food diversity, access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, access to health services, and care practices. Consistent with previous studies, the results also show that overlapping adequacies are associated with much reduced stunting risk. The findings suggest that: i) nutritioninterventions addressing multiple risk factors may promote better outcomes than focusingon any single deprivation, ii) there is need for programs addressing food inadequacy, bothin the form of the number of calories consumed and the diversity of food consumed, iii)promoting food adequacy alone is likely not sufficient to generate large reductions inmalnutrition, and iv) interventions should predominantly focus on rural areas where risksof malnutrition are substantially higher.

Keywords: Infant and Young Child Feeding; seasonal fluctuation; access to safe drinking water; height for age; access to sanitation facility; nutritional status of child; Demographic and Health Survey; women in developing countries; national household; severe vitamin a deficiency; access to social assistance; water supply and sanitation; access to health service; privatization of water services; sanitation and hygiene; rural area; share of children; availability of food; nationally representative survey; drinking water supply; adult equivalence; vitamin d deficiency; adequate care; determinants of malnutrition; risk of death; supplementary feeding program; Poverty and Equity; safety of food; rainwater harvesting technologies; health promotion campaigns; availability of information; risks of malnutrition; food poverty rate; multiple risk factors; social protection services; managing water supply; survey water; rehabilitation of water; sources of water; labor market outcome; public health problem; food security component; iron deficiency anemia; access to water; standard normal distribution; quality of water; improved water; calorie consumption; Child care; causal relationship; explanatory variable; surface water; improved sanitation; index value; estimation strategy; acute malnutrition; adequate food; Child Mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages 36 pages
Date: 2017-11
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