Page 20 - IJPS-5-2

International Journal of Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Risk factors and socioeconomic

inequalities in undernutrition among

children 0-59 months of age in India

Thirupathi Reddy Mokalla , Vishnu Vardhana Rao Mendu *
1
2
1 Division of Biostatistics, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Jamai-Osmania,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India
2 Department of Health Research, ICMR-National Institute of Medical Statistics,
MOHFW, New Delhi, India

Abstract: In the majority of low- and middle-income counties, child health-care dissimilarities
are further aggravated by nutritional status (i.e., stunting, underweight, and wasting). In India,
child malnutrition is the most important contributor to disease burden. The present study
th
ARTICLE INFO uses data from the 4 round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), conducted in
2015-2016. We considered anthropometric indicators of unit-level data of 2, 48, and 174 children
Received: April 6, 2019 aged 0-59 months. This study examines the socio-economic inequality in nutritional status and
Accepted: May 28, 2019
Published: June 4, 2019 their determinants among under-5 year children. The factors considered in the analysis were
categorized as child age in months, mother’s educational status, mother’s nutritional-status,
*CORRESPONDING AUTHOR type of caste, wealth index, birth order, and size of a child at birth. In this study, multivariate
logistic regression and concentration index (CI) have been employed to explore the effect of
Vishnu Vardhana Rao Mendu,
Scientist G and Director, various factors on the child’s nutritional status. The binary logistic analysis has demonstrated
Department of Health a significant association between child nutritional status and mother’s education, mother’s
Research, ICMR-National nutritional status, type of caste, wealth index, birth order, and size of a child at birth. The
Institute of Medical Statistics, results show that the CI for stunting, underweight, and wasting were −0.14, −0.16, and −0.08.
MOHFW, New Delhi - 110 029, Therefore, these factors were significantly high in poorer households. Our study suggests
India. that the nutrition-specific programs to encourage nutritional adequacy, diversity, reduces the
dr_vishnurao@yahoo.com
nutritional burden, and growth of child’s in India.
CITATION
Keywords: India; Stunting; Wasting; Underweight; Logistic regression;
Mokalla TR, Mendu VVR. Concentration index
(2019). Risk factors and
socioeconomic inequalities
in undernutrition among 1. Introduction
children 0-59 months of age in
India. International Journal of Maternal and child undernutrition is highly prevalent in low- and middle-income counties
Population Studies, 5(2):14-23. (LMICs), resulting in substantial increases in morbidity, mortality, death, and overall disease
doi: 10.18063/ijps.v5i2.1125 burden (Black, Allen, Bhutta, et al., 2008; Hosangadi, Kaslow, Giersing, et al., 2019). It
Copyright: © 2019 accounted for almost 97 million disability-adjusted years of life among under-five children,
Mokalla TR, Mendu VVR. This 98% of which occurred in LMICs (Islam, Rahman, Rahan et al., 2019). Child undernutrition
is an Open-Access article in developing countries remains a significant cause for more than one-third of all child deaths
distributed under the terms under the age of five (United Nations Children Fund [UNICEF], 2011). Child malnutrition
of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non Commercial causes 3.5 million children under the age of five to die each year in the world at the third level
4.0 International License in this age group’s disease burden (Messelu and Trueha, 2016). Lack of food affects physical
(http://creativecommons.org/ and intellectual growth, harms the immune system, increases morbidity and mortality
licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting possibilities (Uthman, 2012). Nutritional status stands as a result and impact indicator when
all noncommercial use, assessing development in the direction of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal.
distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the Child mortality is remarkable in one of the world’s problems, especially in the first 5 years
original work is properly cited. of age, which is a problem for public health in African and Asian countries (Das, 2015).

14 International Journal of Population Studies | 2019, Volume 5, Issue 2