Abstract
BackgroundThe reduction of childhood malnutrition has been identified as a priority for health and development in sub Saharan African countries. The association between women’s empowerment and children’s nutritional status is of policy interest due to its effect on human development, labour supply, productivity, economic growth and development. This study aimed to determine the association between women’s empowerment and childhood nutritional status in sub Saharan African countries.MethodsThe study utilized secondary datasets of women in their child bearing age (15–49 years) from the latest Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2011–2017 across 30 sub Saharan Africa countries. The outcome variable of the study was childhood nutritional status while the exposure variable was women’s empowerment indicators such as decision making and attitude towards violence. Analyses were performed at bivariate level with the use of chi square to determine association between outcome and exposure variables and at multivariate level with the use of regression models to examine the effect of women’s empowerment on childhood nutritional status.ResultsWomen’s socio-demographic and other selected characteristics were statistically significantly associated with childhood nutritional status (stunted and underweight) at p < 0.001. These characteristics were also statistically significantly associated with empowerment status of women (Decision-making, Violence attitudes and Experience of violence) at p < 0.001 except for child age and sex. The association between childhood nutritional statuses and women’s empowerment (all three empowerment measures) was significant after controlling for other covariates that could also influence childhood nutrition statuses at p < 001. Two of the empowerment measures (attitudes towards violence and experience of violence) showed positive association with childhood nutritional statuses while the third (decision-making) showed negative association.ConclusionThere is an independent relationship between childhood nutrition status and women’s empowerment in sub Saharan African countries. Women’s empowerment was found to be related to childhood nutritional status. Policies and programmes aiming at reducing childhood malnutrition should include interventions designed to empower women in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Highlights
The reduction of childhood malnutrition has been identified as a priority for health and development in sub Saharan African countries
As evident from literature, this study examined three domains of women empowerment and their association with childhood nutritional status [31, 35]
This study considers datasets from 30 sub-Saharan African countries to do in-depth statistical analysis of women’s empowerment and its association with childhood nutritional status
Summary
The reduction of childhood malnutrition has been identified as a priority for health and development in sub Saharan African countries. This study aimed to determine the association between women’s empowerment and childhood nutritional status in sub Saharan African countries. In spite of the worldwide improvement in nutritional status of children [1,2,3] especially in developing countries [4, 5], malnutrition in childhood is still a major health challenge in low income countries [6] and in the world at large [1, 7]. The World Health Organisation called for worldwide action to stem down the tide of stunting among children by 40% by 2025 [8, 9]
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