Socioeconomic profile and nutritional status of children in rubber smallholdings

Abstract

This paper will present the socioeconomic profile and nutritional status of children aged 1-6 years in the rubber smallholdings of Peninsula Malaysia. A total of 323 households were involved in this study. The sociodemographic data were obtained through interviews with heads of households using a set of questionnaires. Anthropometric measurements were taken from 506 children aged 1-6 years from these households. The weight and height of the children were compared with the reference values of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the nutritional status was classified based on the recommendations of WHO. The average age of the fathers was 39.9+/-8.6 years and 34.4+/-7.0 years for the mothers. The mean household size was 6.67+/-2.27. The majority (49.7%) of the heads of households received 4-6 years of formal education and 7.9% received no formal education. Based on the monthly per capita income, 24.0% were found to be in the hardcore poor category, 38.3% fall into the poor category and 37.7% in the above poverty income group. The prevalence of stunting and underweight among children between the ages of 1-6 years were highest among children from the hardcore poor, followed by the poor category and above the poverty line income group. Wasting was present in all income groups, with a prevalence of 4.2% found among the hardcore poor, 9.4% among the poor group and 8.4% in the above poverty income group. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed significant relationships between household total income and height-for-age (r = 0.131, P = 0.05) and weight-for-age (r = 0.127, P = 0.05). There were also significant correlations between monthly per capita income with height-for-age (r = 0.16, P < 0.01) and weight-for-age (r = 0.13, P < 0.05). The acreage of land utilised was correlated with height-for-age (r = 0.11, P < 0.05), weight-for-age (r = 0.17, P < 0.05) and weight-for-height (r = 0.16, P < 0.05). However, stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that the predictor of height-for-age was monthly per capita income (R2 = 0.03, P < 0.01) and acreage of land utilised was a predictor for weight-for-age (R2 = 0.03, P < 0.01) and weight-for-height (R2 = 0.01, P < 0.01). Because income and acreage of land utilised have been shown to be associated with nutritional status, it is recommended that intervention programs that focus on generation of income and diversification of land utilisation should be undertaken. A multidiscipline approach involving the family, community and government agencies should be applied to any type of intervention program.

Prevalence of undernutrition in Nepalese children

“…The present study suggests that prevalence of stunting and underweight among Nepalese children was higher than children of Karnataka (9.4% stunting and 31.2% underweight) (Joseph et al 2002) and Santal children of Purulia district (17.62% stunting and 33.8% underweight) (Chowdhury et al 2008). The prevalence of stunting and underweight in the present study was higher than in Pakistani children (35% stunting and 29.5% underweight) (Mian et al 2002) and Malaysian children (29.2% stunting and 26.1% underweight) (Marjan et al 1998) but stunting was lower than in Indonesian children (55% stunting) (Hadju et al 1995). Severe stunting and underweight (below (3 Z-score) of the present study was comparable to Bangladeshi children (11% stunting and 16% underweight) (Chisti et al 2007).…”

Household food insecurity and coping strategies in a poor rural community in Malaysia

“…The ten items have been translated into Malay language and the translated version was used in previous studies with reported alpha Cronbach's in the range of 0.8-0.9 (Zalilah, 1998; Zalilah & Ang, 2002, Zalilah & Kathryn, 2002). The internal consistency of the instrument used in this study was 0.96.…”

Nutritional status among boys and girls of a central Indian Town (Sagar)

“…It was found that the incidences of stunting and underweight among central Indian children is lower than those reported from Malaysian children (29.2% stunting, 26.1% underweight) by Marjan et al (1998), Pakistani children (29.5% underweight) by Mian et al (2002), Tibetan children (24.7% underweight) by Dang et al (2004), Tanzanian children (31.6% stunting; 14.6% underweight and 2.9% wasted) and Kenyan children (4.5% wasted; 14.9% underweight; 30.20% stunted) (Chesire et al 2008). Here, it should be noted that only wasting among Tanzanian children is slightly lower than present one.…”

“…The technique of anthropometry has been successfully utilized by different researchers to assess and document the growth and nutritional status of various human communities, including those from India (Marjan et al 1998;Dang et al 2004;, Mitra et al 2007Som et al 2006;Gautam 2007aGautam , 2007bGautam , 2007cGautam and 2008Bisai et al 2008;Nandy and Miranda 2008;Chesire et al 2008;Sen 2009 and2010;Gautam and Thakur 2009;Thakur and Gautam 2014). A sizeable number of these studies are on the assessment of nutritional status pertaining to children.…”