Mechlowitz Karah, Singh Nitya, Li Xiaolong, Chen Dehao, Yang Yang, Rabil Anna, Cheraso Adriana Joy, Ahmed Ibsa Abdusemed, Amin Jafer Kedir, Gebreyes Wondwossen A, Hassen Jemal Y, Ibrahim Abdulmuen Mohammed, Manary Mark J, Rajashekara Gireesh, Roba Kedir Teji, Usmane Ibsa Aliyi, Havelaar Arie H, McKune Sarah L
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Department of Animal Sciences, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
Front Nutr. 2023 Jun 29;10:1048532. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1048532. eCollection 2023.
Agriculture, and particularly livestock and animal source foods, has been closely linked to improvements in human nutrition. Production, income, and women's empowerment improve household food security and child nutritional outcomes in interacting ways. Khat production in Eastern Ethiopia is changing the economic and livelihood landscape for communities that have traditionally relied upon small-scale mixed agriculture and livestock production. How this shifting livelihood landscape and the empowerment of women in these communities are affecting nutritional outcomes has not been investigated. Using cross-sectional data collected during formative research for the Campylobacter Genomics and Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (CAGED) project, we developed models to examine the roles of livelihood activities, including livestock production, staple crop production, and khat production, and women's empowerment in child nutrition outcomes. Survey participants were randomly selected mothers of children aged 10-15 months from Haramaya district, Eastern Hararghe, Oromia, Ethiopia. Nested logistic regression models were performed for each nutrition outcome: children's animal source food consumption, children's dietary diversity, and child stunting, wasting, and underweight. Explanatory variables included those for livelihood (tropical livestock unit, crop production, and khat production ladder) and women's empowerment (as indicated by domains of the Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index), and covariates including child sex, mother's age, mother's education, assets, income, and kebele. Results indicated that khat production and tropical livestock units were not significantly associated with any of the child nutrition outcomes. However, results did indicate that the odds of reporting child animal source food consumption in households where the mother was empowered in the leadership domain was 3.33 times that in households where the mother wasn't ( < 0.05). In addition, the odds of having a stunted child in households where the mother was empowered in the time domain was 2.68 times that in households where the mother wasn't ( < 0.05). The results from this study both support and complicate the existing literature on the associations between women's empowerment in agriculture and child nutrition outcomes, underscoring the important role that livelihood, contextual factors, and location may have on the complex relationship between empowerment domains and nutritional outcomes.
农业，尤其是畜牧业和动物源食品，与人类营养的改善密切相关。生产、收入以及妇女赋权以相互作用的方式改善了家庭粮食安全和儿童营养状况。埃塞俄比亚东部的恰特草生产正在改变那些传统上依赖小规模混合农业和畜牧业生产的社区的经济和生计格局。这种不断变化的生计格局以及这些社区中妇女的赋权如何影响营养状况尚未得到研究。利用在弯曲杆菌基因组学与环境性肠道功能障碍（CAGED）项目的形成性研究期间收集的横断面数据，我们建立了模型来检验生计活动（包括畜牧业生产、主要作物生产和恰特草生产）以及妇女赋权在儿童营养状况方面的作用。调查参与者是从埃塞俄比亚奥罗米亚州哈拉尔格东部的哈勒马亚区随机选取的10至15个月大儿童的母亲。针对每个营养状况进行了嵌套逻辑回归模型分析：儿童动物源食品消费、儿童饮食多样性以及儿童发育迟缓、消瘦和体重不足情况。解释变量包括生计方面（热带牲畜单位、作物生产和恰特草生产阶梯）以及妇女赋权方面（如农业领域妇女赋权指数各领域所示）的变量，协变量包括儿童性别、母亲年龄、母亲教育程度、资产、收入和行政区。结果表明，恰特草生产和热带牲畜单位与任何儿童营养状况均无显著关联。然而，结果确实表明，在母亲在领导领域获得赋权的家庭中，报告儿童食用动物源食品的几率是母亲未获得赋权家庭的3.33倍（<0.05）。此外，在母亲在时间领域获得赋权的家庭中，孩子发育迟缓的几率是母亲未获得赋权家庭的2.68倍（<0.05）。本研究结果既支持又使现有关于农业领域妇女赋权与儿童营养状况之间关联的文献变得复杂，强调了生计、背景因素和地点可能对赋权领域与营养状况之间的复杂关系所起的重要作用。
