Household and environmental factors influencing anthropometric outcomes in preschool children in a rural Ethiopian community

Abstract

This article tests the hypothesis that anthropometrical outcomes in preschool children are a function of complex interaction between food, nutrition, health, and other physical environmental conditions within which children live and grow. A system of simultaneous equations is used to test the above hypothesis using data from an Ethiopian highland community. The results show that a child's nutritional and health status are jointly determined by dietary intake, well-being of the mother as the primary caregiver, and the state of the physical environment for agricultural production and healthy living. Among other factors, children were found to be in better health with an increase in the number of cows in their households’ livestock herds. The revealed interrelatedness and complexities of cause and effect clearly dictate the need for a multi- or transdisciplinary approach to research and development addressing health, nutrition, sanitation, agricultural production practices, among other factors for alleviating the nutritional and health problems of children and rural households.

Keywords:

• malnutrition
• anthropometrics
• agroecosystem
• Ethiopia
• East Africa

Acknowledgments

The International Development Research Center, Ottawa, Canada, and the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya provided funding for the study. Solomon Gebreselassie, Degefa Biru, Asfawosen Haile, Alemu Gemeda and Teferi Teshome assisted in field data collection. The authors also benefited from comments of the editor and an anonymous referee of the journal.

Notes

In nutrition studies, when one child is chosen from households having more than one child under the age of 5, usually the youngest child is chosen as the youngest child is assumed to be affected more by malnutrition, water problems, and environmental morbidity. However, selecting the youngest child may bias the sample toward a lower age bracket, hence, the random choice in this study.

Z-scores were based on the reference standards developed by the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the National Center for Health Services (NCHS), and the World Health Organization (WHO, 1983). Standard cut-off points and definitions have been used for malnutrition; stunting and severe stunting are defined as HAZ below –2.00 and below –3.00, respectively, underweight and severely underweight as WAZ below –2.00 and below –3.00, and wasting and severe wasting as WHZ below –2.00 and below –3.00.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a standard international nutritional assessment value obtained by dividing weight in kilograms by the square of height in meters.

Recall that 10 is the highest possible score for household nutrition and if diet and health are to be merged on an equal basis to obtain H, then 10 also has to be the highest attainable score for household morbidity.