Orphan/vulnerable child caregiving moderates the association between women's autonomy and their BMI in three African countries

Abstract

Enhancement of women's autonomy is a key factor for improving women's health and nutrition. With nearly 12 million orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) in Africa due to HIV/AIDS, the study of OVC primary caregivers' nutrition is fundamental. We investigated the association between married women's autonomy and their nutritional status; explored whether this relationship was modified by OVC primary caregiving; and analyzed whether decision-making autonomy mediated the association between household wealth and body mass index (BMI). This cross-sectional study used the data from Demographic Health Surveys collected during 2006–2007 from 20- to 49-year-old women in Namibia (n = 2633), Swaziland (n = 1395), and Zambia (n = 2920). Analyses included logistic regression, Sobel, and Goodman tests. Our results indicated that women's educational attainment increased the odds for being overweight (Swaziland and Zambia) and decreased the odds for being underweight (Namibia). In Zambia, having at least primary education increased the odds for being overweight only among child primary caregivers regardless of the OVC status of the child, and having autonomy for buying everyday household items increased the odds for being overweight only among OVC primary caregivers. Decision-making autonomy mediated the association between household wealth and OVC primary caregivers' BMI in Zambia (Z = 2.13, p value = 0.03). We concluded that depending on each country's contextual characteristics, having education can decrease the odds for being an underweight woman or increase the odds for being an overweight woman. Further studies should explore why in Namibia education has an effect on women's overweight status only among women who are caring for a child.

Keywords:

• caregivers
• personal autonomy
• child
• orphaned
• Africa south of the Sahara
• body mass index
• women
• thinness
• overweight

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr Michel Garenne as he has always been willing to answer questions and share his previous work related to the AWI and to Mr Arnaldo Gonzales who provided comments to the writing style. We are grateful to Macro International Inc. for making available the DHS data for these analyses.

Funding

This work was supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Research Centers Program under the Cooperative Agreement Number 1 U48 DP001929 and by a P20 Exploratory Center of Excellence [grant number P20MD002288; Sub-Project ID: 6068], funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and housed within the Center for Research on US Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) at Florida International University.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This work was supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Prevention Research Centers Program under the Cooperative Agreement Number 1 U48 DP001929 and by a P20 Exploratory Center of Excellence [grant number P20MD002288; Sub-Project ID: 6068], funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and housed within the Center for Research on US Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) at Florida International University.