Factors associated with child hunger among food insecure households in Bangladesh

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Jillian L. Waid¹  Sabiha Sultana²  Fahmida Dil Farzana³  Mohammad Jyoti Raihan³  Md Ahshanul Haque³  Ahmed Shafiqur Rahman³  Nuzhat Choudhury³  Tahmeed Ahmed⁴ 

[1] Helen Keller International, 1212, Dhaka, Bangladesh;James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, 1212, Dhaka, Bangladesh;Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, 68, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sharani, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh;Nutrition and Clinical Services Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, 68, Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Sharani, Mohakhali, Dhaka, Bangladesh;James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, 1212, Dhaka, Bangladesh;

关键词: Child hunger;    Food insecurity;    Bangladesh;    Under 5 children;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-017-4108-z

 received in 2016-06-15, accepted in 2017-02-04,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHunger is associated with food insecurity at the household level and is considered as a global public health problem with long term adverse consequences on children’s health. This study aims to determine the factors associated with child hunger from a nationally representative sample in Bangladesh among food insecure households.MethodsData was derived from the Food Security and Nutritional Surveillance Project; 14,712 children aged 6–59 months belonging to food insecure households contributed to the analysis. Information on food security at the household level was collected for 30 days preceding the survey. Descriptive statistics served to illustrate the variables studied and multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the significant risk factors for child hunger.ResultsOverall 10% of the children were found to be hungry. After adjusting for seasonality, residence type and education level of household head, the variables - female headed households [OR: 1.87 (1.43–2.45); p < 0.001], severely food insecure households [OR: 10.5 (1.43–76.6); p < 0.05], households having women with no education [OR: 1.56 (1.27–1.92); p < 0.05], poorest asset quintile [OR: 1.50 (1.11–2.15); p < 0.05] and the amount of rice consumed per household per week [OR: 0.94 (0.92–0.96); p < 0.001] were found to be significantly and independently associated with child hunger.ConclusionsOut of the potential risk factors examined, our study found significant and independent association of five variables with child hunger: sex of the household head, household food insecurity status, educational status of household women and asset index. Despite all sampled household being food insecure, degree of household food insecurity status appeared to be the strongest predictor of child hunger.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017