Analysis of nutritional inequalities in children under five in Togo

Résumé

Abstract Background: Malnutrition is a widespread public health problem in Togo. The aim of this article is to identify the risk factors for malnutrition in children under five and the variations between socio-economic factors. Methods: We conducted a simultaneous quantile regression analysis to identify the risk factors of malnutrition in Togo. In addition, concentration curves were constructed to explore the nature of variability in malnutrition. We identified risk factors at the child level such as child gender, age, health insurance, wealth index that explain the risk of stunting and underweight. Results: The decomposition results show that the mother's education contributes about 0.07% of the variability for stunting and underweight for secondary or higher education. Simultaneous quantile regression results show that children of mothers with primary education have a lower risk of stunting (q.0.2 coef 0.2, p-value 0.041) while health insurance is associated with a lower risk of severe stunting in children under five years of age (q0.5, coef = 0.348, p-value .032). Finally, health insurance contributed about 0.17% and living in an urban area contributed 0.12% to the variability in stunting and underweight respectively. Conclusion: Critical risk factors for malnutrition can help in formulating policies for children's nutritional health. The results suggest that there is a need to encourage critical policies aimed at improving female literacy and universal health coverage to reduce child malnutrition.

Citer ce document

Accès au document

Ce document est hébergé sur son dépôt institutionnel d'origine.

Auteur(s)

Statistiques

Consultations : 1

Téléchargements : 0