Shahid Muhammad, Cao Yang, Shahzad Muhammad, Saheed Rafit, Rauf Umara, Qureshi Madeeha Gohar, Hasnat Abdullah, Bibi Asma, Ahmed Farooq
School of Insurance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing 100029, China.
Department of Anthropology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan.
Children (Basel). 2022 Mar 4;9(3):361. doi: 10.3390/children9030361.
This research investigates the association of malnutrition with social and economic factors in general and environmental factors in specific such as sanitation facilities and drinking water sources for Pakistan.
Authors used the latest data of 1010 Under-Three children from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018. Cumulative Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) was developed to measure the malnutrition status among children based on z-scores of WHZ, WAZ, and HAZ, respectively. The study has applied the discrete-choice logistic methodology to find the relationship of malnutrition with socio-economic characteristics. The interaction terms of drinking water source and sanitation facility have been measured to see the impact of environmental factors on child malnutrition.
The study results depict that the likelihood of malnutrition increases when the child had diarrhea recently and the child belongs to the deprived region such as KPK, Sind, and Baluchistan. However, the chances of child malnutrition drop with (1) an escalation of mothers' education, (2) a rise in wealth status of the household, and (3) the improved water source and sanitation facility in the household. The only water-improved sanitation category of the interaction term is significant in the model which depicts that households having both improved water and improved sanitation facilities had very fewer chances of malnutrition among their children.
Authors conclude that malnutrition in younger children is associated with improved water as well as sanitation facilities, maternal education, and household wealth in Pakistan.
本研究调查营养不良与一般社会经济因素以及特定环境因素（如巴基斯坦的卫生设施和饮用水源）之间的关联。
作者使用了来自2017 - 2018年巴基斯坦人口与健康调查（PDHS）的1010名三岁以下儿童的最新数据。基于WHZ、WAZ和HAZ的z分数，开发了人体测量失败累积指数（CIAF）来衡量儿童的营养不良状况。该研究应用离散选择逻辑方法来找出营养不良与社会经济特征之间的关系。测量了饮用水源和卫生设施的交互项，以观察环境因素对儿童营养不良的影响。
研究结果表明，当儿童近期腹泻且属于贫困地区（如开伯尔 - 普赫图赫瓦省、信德省和俾路支省）时，营养不良的可能性会增加。然而，儿童营养不良的几率会随着以下情况而降低：（1）母亲教育程度的提高；（2）家庭财富状况的上升；（3）家庭中水源和卫生设施的改善。交互项中唯一的水源改善卫生设施类别在模型中具有显著性，这表明同时拥有改善后的水源和卫生设施的家庭中，其子女营养不良的几率非常低。
作者得出结论，在巴基斯坦，幼儿营养不良与水源及卫生设施的改善、母亲教育程度和家庭财富有关。
