Progress in Demographic and Other Factors and Its Influence on Nutritional Status of Mothers and Children in India

Abstract

It is well known that child nutrition is affected by many factors like socio-cultural, economic and demographic, etc. Studies found that maternal education, wealth index, and ethnicity have an influence on child nutrition. In this paper, comparative study of malnutrition among children and mothers between 1992-93 and 2005-06 has been done.

Objective: The main objective of the paper is to study how progress in demographic and other socioeconomic factors influence nutritional status of mother and children.

Data and Methods: First round (1992-93) and third round (2005-06) of National Family Health Survey has been used to reach the objective of the study. To show the progress in nutritional status, percentage change in prevalence of malnutrition in different background characteristics from 1992-93 to 2005-06 has been calculated. To show the progress in different background characteristics and its effect on child malnutrition decomposition analysis has been done.

Result: Almost all variable are significantly associated with child malnutrition thus more contribution of any variable in bringing the change in prevalence of malnutrition shows the more progress in that variable from 1992-93 to 2005- 06. The decomposition analysis clearly shows that the condition of mother’s education and timing to initiate breastfeeding are found to be contributing significantly to the reduction of underweight among children between 1992- 93 and 2005-06.

Conclusion: This study shows that improvement in mother’s education contributed the most in improving the nutritional status of children. Thus by increasing the educational in female under-nutrition can be reduced to a larger extent.

  • Page Number : 133-148

  • Keywords
    Nutrition, Stunting, Underweight, wasted, BMI, Oaxaca Decomposition Model

  • DOI Number
    https://doi.org/10.15415/jmrh.2016.22009

  • Authors
    Rajaram Yadav, Kalosona Paul, Shrestha Saha

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  • Published Date : 2016-04-04