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conferenceseries
.com
Volume 08
Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Public Health Summit 2018
May 24-25, 2018
May 24-25, 2018 Osaka, Japan
4
th
World Congress on
Public Health, Epidemiology & Nutrition
Trends andpatterns of child stunting and the double burdenof childunder-nutrition inMalawi:Amultinomial
logistic regression analysis of the 2000 and 2015 Malawi Demographic and Health Surveys Data
Chikhungu L C
University of Portsmouth
C
hild under-nutrition is a major global health challenge that is implicated in child deaths in developing countries every year
and contributes to poor cognitive development. Recent estimates reveal that in Malawi 37% children are stunted, 12% are
underweight and 3% are wasted. This paper used the 2000 and 2015 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey data to examine
the co-existence of stunting and underweight within a child, identify children that suffer from stunting only and performed a
multinomial logistic regression to analyze changes in the determinants of child nutritional status in Malawi. The percentage
of children that are stunted reduced from 37.2% in 2000 to 26.8% in 2015. Most children identified as underweight were also
stunted: 14.5% in 2000 and 8.8% in 2015, indicating the existence of the double burden of child undernutrition. The following
factors were significantly associated with a child’s nutritional status: age, sex, size at birth and household wealth status. Mother
education level was only consistently associated with child stunting while mother height, mother weight and having a younger
sibling were important associates of the double burden of child undernutrition. Child stunting and the double burden of child
undernutrition have declined but remain high. Increased female education especially at secondary or higher level and child
spacing are likely to help tackle child undernutrition in Malawi. Replacing the underweight measure by the double burden of
undernutrition measure may help with the formulation of appropriate policy interventions to tackle child undernutrition in
Malawi and affected countries.
Lana.chikhungu@port.ac.ukJ Community Med Health Educ 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0711-C2-036