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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Household headship and nutritional status of toddlers: an examination of Malawian data
Authors:Chindime, Clara C.ISNI
Ubomba-Jaswa, SusieISNI
Year:2007
Periodical:African Population Studies
Volume:21
Issue:2
Pages:45-73
Language:English
Geographic term:Malawi
Subjects:malnutrition
child health
female-headed households
Abstract:This paper examines whether the nutritional status of children in female-headed households (FHH) differs significantly from that of children in male-headed households. Anthropometric data on 1466 toddlers aged 12-59 months and several societal, household and individual variables from the Malawi Demographic Health Survey (MDHS) 1992 were used to find out the net impact of the sex of household head on stunting, undernutrition and wasting in the toddlers. The bivariate results show that children in FHH may not have poorer nutritional outcomes than their counterparts from MHH since the differences are not significant. However, a number of the background characteristics were significantly associated with the three indicators suggesting that the results on headship could be masked by the differentials shown in background characteristics. Furthermore, results from the logistic regression analysis suggest that economic status has the strongest relationship with stunting. Hence the likelihood that a child from a better economic status household will be stunted is 50 percent less likely compared to a child from a poor household. Besides economic status, the role of birth weight, child's age, sanitation and the region in which the child lives were found to be important differentials in the nutritional status of toddlers in Malawi. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]
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