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Associations of Community‐Level Sanitation and Child Stunting in Bengali and Tribal Populations in Bangladesh: A Cross‐Sectional Study
Author(s) -
Sinharoy Sheela,
Waid Jillian,
Stein Aryeh
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.579.13
Subject(s) - bengali , defecation , demography , medicine , open defecation , cross sectional study , significant difference , environmental health , sanitation , surgery , philosophy , linguistics , pathology , sociology
Objective To describe trends and determinants of stunting prevalence among tribal and Bengali children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. Methods We analyzed surveillance data collected from 2003 – 2006 among 12,006 children aged 6‐23 months. Results Mean height‐for‐age z‐score (HAZ) was stable for Bengali children (‐1.88 in 2003 to ‐1.90 in 2006) but increased for tribal children (‐1.87 in 2003 to ‐1.68 in 2006). The difference between groups was significant in 2005 (p=0.0017) and 2006 (p=0.0014). In both groups, HAZ was negatively associated with age in months (p=0.001) and distance to health center (p=0.039) and positively associated with mother's height (p=0.012). HAZ was also positively associated with father's schooling (p=0.009) among Bengali children and with consumption of animal source foods (p=0.007) and goat ownership (p=0.045) among tribal children, and negatively associated with village‐level prevalence of open defecation among tribal children (p=0.022). Blinder‐Oaxaca decomposition demonstrated a significant difference in pooled coefficients between the two groups (p=0.003). This was explained primarily by village‐level open defecation, which was significant only for tribal children (p=0.018). Conclusions Village‐level prevalence of open defecation is an important explanatory factor for the difference in HAZ between tribal and Bengali populations. Open defecation may also act a proxy for unmeasured factors such as household environmental conditions and food hygiene. Source of Research Support Laney Graduate School (Emory University) and HKI