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Association between paternal smoking and nutritional status of under‐five children attending Diarrhoeal Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Author(s) -
Chowdhury Fahmida,
Chisti Mohammod Jobayer,
Hossain Md Iqbal,
Malek Mohammad Abdul,
Salam Mohammed Abdus,
Faruque Abu Syed Golam
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta paediatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2010.02067.x
Subject(s) - medicine , underweight , malnutrition , confounding , logistic regression , pediatrics , demography , socioeconomic status , environmental health , body mass index , population , overweight , sociology
Aim: The study aimed at determining whether there is an association between paternal smoking and nutritional status of children aged 0–59 months. Furthermore, the study looked at the presence of any nutritional differentials within different socio‐economic groups. Methods: Secondary analysis of data on children aged 0–59 months enrolled in the Hospital Surveillance System of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka Hospital, Bangladesh, during 1996–2006. Results: Among 13,555 under‐five children, fathers of 49% were smokers. In multivariate logistic regression models adjusting for potential confounders, fathers’ smoking was significantly associated with increased risk of moderate underweight (OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.08–1.25), severe underweight (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06–1.26), moderate stunting (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06–1.23) and severe stunting (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.03–1.25). In middle and lower socio‐economic strata, risk of moderate and severe child malnutrition was found to be significantly increased in the group where the father was a smoker. Conclusion: Results indicate that there is an association between fathers’ smoking and malnutrition of under‐five children particularly in lower socio‐economic group. A possible mechanism – if this association is causal – may be through a negative effect on family economy.