Childhood Stunting in Tajikistan : Quantifying the Association with WASH, Food Security, Health, and Care Practices
More than 20 percent of children under the age of 5 in Tajikistan are stunted. A large literature finds that stunting and undernutrition in early childhood are commonly the result of several contributing environmental, food, hygiene, and health-rel...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/177891521471973553/Childhood-stunting-in-Tajikistan-quantifying-the-association-with-wash-food-security-health-and-care-practices http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29550 |
| Summary: | More than 20 percent of children under
the age of 5 in Tajikistan are stunted. A large literature
finds that stunting and undernutrition in early childhood
are commonly the result of several contributing
environmental, food, hygiene, and health-related factors.
However, quantifying these interactions is usually not
possible due to the difficulty of collecting sufficient data
on each dimension in a single survey. To address this issue,
we integrated the samples of two separate nationally
representative surveys conducted simultaneously in
Tajikistan in late 2016. This design allows analysis of the
determinants of undernutrition in a unified framework. The
results show strong associations between undernutrition and
the number of food calories consumed, food diversity, access
to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, access to
health services, and care practices. Consistent with
previous studies, the results also show that overlapping
adequacies are associated with much reduced stunting risk.
The findings suggest that: i) nutritioninterventions
addressing multiple risk factors may promote better outcomes
than focusingon any single deprivation, ii) there is need
for programs addressing food inadequacy, bothin the form of
the number of calories consumed and the diversity of food
consumed, iii)promoting food adequacy alone is likely not
sufficient to generate large reductions inmalnutrition, and
iv) interventions should predominantly focus on rural areas
where risksof malnutrition are substantially higher. |
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