Socio-economic Correlates of Malnutrition among Married Women in Bangladesh
- Author:
Mostafa Kamal SM
;
Md Aynul Islam
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Bangladeshi women, body mass index, logistic regression,malnutrition, wealth
- From:
Malaysian Journal of Nutrition
2010;16(3):349-359
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
This paper examines the prevalence and socio-economic correlates of malnutrition among ever married non-pregnant women of reproductive age of Bangladesh
using a nationally representative weighted sample of 10,145. Body mass index was used to measure nutritional status. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical
analyses were employed to assess the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and women’s nutritional status. Overall, 28.5% of the women
were found to be underweight. The fixed effect multivariate binary logistic regression analysis yielded significantly increased risk of underweight for the
young, currently working, non-Muslim, rural residents, widowed, divorced or separated women. Significant wide variations of malnourishment prevailed in
the administrative regions of the country. Wealth index and women’s education were the most important determinants of underweight. The multivariate logistic
regression analysis revealed that the risk of being underweight was almost seven times higher (OR=6.76, 95% CI=5.20-8.80) among women with no formal
education as compared to those with higher education and the likelihood of underweight was significantly (p<0.001) 5.2 times (OR=5.23, 95% CI=4.51-6.07)
in the poorest as compared to their richest counterparts. Poverty alleviation programmes should be strengthened targeting the poor. Effective policies,
information and health education programmes for women are required to ensure adequate access to health services and for them to understand the components of a healthy diet.
- Full text:W020150713558455187857.pdf
