Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
Adv Nutr. 2019 Nov 1;10(6):1138-1151. doi: 10.1093/advances/nmz056.
Women's empowerment has gained attention as critical for child nutrition during the first 1000 days of life. However, the ways in which various women's empowerment measures are applied and the evidence for how they are differentially related to child nutrition is unclear. In this systematic review, therefore, we 1) systematically parse the many ways in which women's empowerment has been quantitatively measured in the context of child nutrition through the use of a theoretically driven application of dimensions and domains of empowerment; 2) summarize evidence for each of the various pathways between women's empowerment and child nutrition, based on dimensions and domains of empowerment; and 3) offer suggestions for future research to better articulate the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition. A search of evidence yielded 62 quantitative studies that used 200 unique indicators of women's empowerment, tested in 1316 associations with various child nutrition outcomes. Despite the large number of unique indicators, indicators for time resource allocation and reproductive decisions and indicators for men's engagement in child care and nutrition, all pertinent to child nutrition, were missing. Overall, the findings indicated an inconclusive relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition: 379 out of 461 (82% weighted) and 217 out of 258 (84% weighted) associations found with stunting and wasting outcomes, respectively, were not significant. The current lack of evidence is likely not due to the absence of an underlying relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition, but rather limitations in study design. Future research should carefully select women's empowerment indicators in context-specific ways, aggregate them meaningfully, and use a longitudinal study design to conduct pathway and lifecycle analysis in appropriate populations to clarify the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition.
赋予妇女权力已引起关注，因为它对生命最初 1000 天的儿童营养至关重要。然而，各种赋予妇女权力的措施的应用方式以及它们与儿童营养的关系如何存在差异的证据尚不清楚。因此，在本系统评价中，我们 1）通过应用赋权的维度和领域对赋予妇女权力的多种方式进行系统分析，以定量方式研究儿童营养；2）根据赋权的维度和领域，总结妇女赋权与儿童营养之间的各种途径的证据；3）提出未来研究的建议，以更好地阐明妇女赋权与儿童营养之间的关系。证据检索产生了 62 项定量研究，这些研究使用了 200 种独特的妇女赋权指标，在 1316 种与各种儿童营养结局的关联中进行了测试。尽管独特指标的数量很多，但与儿童营养相关的时间资源分配和生殖决策以及男性参与儿童保育和营养的指标均缺失。总体而言，研究结果表明妇女赋权与儿童营养之间的关系尚无定论：分别有 379 项（82%权重）和 217 项（84%权重）关联与发育迟缓与消瘦结局有关，结果均不显著。目前缺乏证据的原因可能不是因为妇女赋权与儿童营养之间不存在潜在关系，而是因为研究设计存在局限性。未来的研究应根据具体情况仔细选择妇女赋权指标，有意义地对其进行汇总，并使用纵向研究设计，在适当的人群中进行途径和生命周期分析，以澄清妇女赋权与儿童营养之间的关系。
