Understanding the Geographical Distribution of Stunting in Tanzania : A Geospatial Analysis of the 2015-16 Demographic and Health Survey

Joseph, George ; Gething, Peter W. ; Bhatt, Samir ; Ayling, Sophie C.E.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY;    STUNTING;    GEOSPATIAL ECONOMICS;    GEO-STATISTICS;    HEALTH POLICY;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8688
RP-ID  :  WPS8688

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Tanzania is home to the third highestpopulation of stunted children in Sub-Saharan Africa, withabout 2.7 million children under the age of five failing toreach their full potential of growth attainment comparedwith the reference population as per the World HealthOrganization standards. Several studies have shown thatstunted growth during childhood entraps the future ofchildren in a vicious circle of recurrent diseases, reducedhuman development, and lower earnings, thus increasing theirlikelihood of being poor when they grow up. To reducestunting, the Government of Tanzania and developmentpartners are introducing a convergence of multisectoralinterventions adapted to local needs. However, the existingstunting data are representative only at higheradministrative levels, thus making it difficult to implementthese efforts. The paper uses the 2016 geo-referencedDemographic and Health Survey in conjunction with relevantspatially gridded covariate data, such as nighttime lights,water and sanitation access, vegetation index, travel time,and so on. Geospatial techniques, such as model-basedstatistics and Bayesian inference implemented using the INLAalgorithm, along with appropriate model validation exercisesare employed to develop high-resolution maps of stunting inTanzania at 1×1-kilometer spatial resolution. The maps showthat areas of consistently high stunting rates tend to bemore common in rural parts of the country, especiallythroughout the western and southwestern border areas. Thereis high prevalence of low stunting in the urban areas aroundDar es Salaam, Arusha, and Dodoma, as well as in the southof Lake Victoria.