Determinants of Gender Disparity in Nutritional Intake among Children in Pakistan: Evidence from PDHS

Awaisra Shafiq,Shahida Kanwel,Arif Jameel,Muhammad Asif,Saiqa Sadiq,Abid Hussain

doi:10.3390/children9010007

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze early age malnutrition on a gender basis in Pakistan. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012–2013 data related to households’ characteristics that affect the nutrition of children less than 5 years of age are used for the estimation of results. Gender disparity (measured by girl malnourished in household/boy malnourished in a household) is constructed for the measurement of gender disparity in early age child nutrition. After synthesizing the PDHS data set, 2119 observations are used for regression results of gender disparity. Regression results are analyzed at the level of 5% confidence interval otherwise insignificant. egression results for gender disparity show that households in good socioeconomic status, a greater number of household members, a mother’s higher level of education, mother employment, and the male head of the household, causes a decrease in gender disparity in nutrition intake of children.

Highlights

Child health is a key indicator of economic development
Frequencies explain the distribution of each variable (Gender Disparity, Mother Education, Wealth Index, Number of Children in a house, Household Head, Household Size, Place of Residence, and Mother Employment) according to their categories (Table 2)
The results of this study showed that landless households discriminated more against girls for expenditures of food, clothing, and medicine as compared to land-owning households [5,24]

Summary

Introduction

Child health is a key indicator of economic development. Nutrition continues to be a major public concern. The main determinants of child malnutrition are poverty, population growth, unawareness, lack of excess food, the burden of diseases, illiteracy, environmental damage, i.e., lack of safe drinking water, and inequality among children. Children from the poorest houses are twice as malnourished than children from the richest houses [2]. A major cause of malnutrition is gender disparity, gender inequality in quantity and quality of food intake mainly due to the reason that a female child is considered less important than a male child. In several parts of South Asia, gender inequality in nutrition, education, and health is reported consistently [3].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion