Factors associated with nutritional status of children in Bangladesh: a multivariate analysis

Factors associated with nutritional status of children in Bangladesh: a multivariate analysis

Protein energy malnutrition is a major health issue in Bangladesh and it affects the physical growth and logical development of children. To examine the association of some socio-economic, demographic, health-system and community factors with the nutritional status of Bangladeshi children aged 0-59 months, the study used a sample of 5,333 children from the 1999-2000 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data. The anthropometric criterion Weight-for-age was used to access the prevalence of severe as well as moderate levels of malnutrition, following the WHO guidelines and cut-off points. Both bivariate and multivariate techniques of analysis were employed. The findings of the study demonstrate that the total prevalence of underweight children was about 47%, 12.8% of whom were severely malnourished. Polytomous logistic regression analysis revealed that the four groups of selected factors were significantly associated with severe and/or moderate malnutrition, and the demographic characteristics such as child’s birth size, child’s age, mother’s nutritional status and duration of breastfeeding appeared to be the most statistically significant factors for child nutrition in Bangladesh.