Sadikeen Sheikh Sifat, Haque Nazmul, Hossain Md Miraj, Uddin Md Jamal
Department of Statistics, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, 3114, Bangladesh.
Faculty of Graduate Studies, Daffodil International University, Savar, Dhaka, 1216, Bangladesh.
Health Econ Rev. 2024 Aug 29;14(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s13561-024-00549-9.
Currently, food price inflation is a widespread issue in Bangladesh as well as the rest of the world. Malnutrition is a common issue among children that can have long-lasting effects on their development and overall health. There have been lots of studies conducted to identify the factors responsible for child malnutrition, but inflation is rarely considered a factor in child malnutrition. We aimed to determine the relationship between food price inflation and stunting (Height-for-Age Z-score (HAZ)) in children under five years of age in Bangladesh.
The study utilized food price data from the World Food Programme database and malnutrition (stunting) information from the 2014 and 2017-18 Bangladesh Demographic Health Surveys (BDHS). This includes the total study period from 2009 to 2018. Food prices were linked to the BDHS dataset using each child's birth month. For each child, the average food prices from 9 months prior to 5 months post-birth, including their birth month, were recorded to calculate month-to-month inflation. This inflation was computed for rice (coarse), oil, wheat flour, and lentils by comparing the price sum of each item from one month to the previous month and dividing by the total price of the preceding month. A generalized linear regression model was used to assess the relationship between food price inflation and stunting, with stunting as the dependent variable. Other explanatory variables included wealth index, sex of the child, height, weight, mother's education, respondent's current pregnancy, and breastfeeding status.
Our study has revealed that food price inflation has a significant negative effect on stunting, with a coefficient of -0.127 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, we have identified several other factors that have also significantly negative associations with stunting, including the wealth index (p < 0.001), mother's education level (p < 0.001), mother's pregnancy status (p < 0.001), breastfeeding (p < 0.001), child's age (p < 0.001). child's weight (p < 0.001) has significantly positive effect on stunting. However, we did not find any significant differences in stunting between boys and girls.
In conclusion, the findings of this study underscore the significant negative impact of food price inflation on child stunting, emphasizing the need to acknowledge this factor alongside others. These results highlight the critical role of addressing food price inflation as a key determinant of stunting, in conjunction with various other contributing factors, in efforts to combat childhood malnutrition.
目前，食品价格通胀在孟加拉国以及世界其他地区都是一个普遍问题。营养不良是儿童中常见的问题，会对他们的发育和整体健康产生长期影响。已经进行了大量研究来确定导致儿童营养不良的因素，但通胀很少被视为儿童营养不良的一个因素。我们旨在确定孟加拉国五岁以下儿童食品价格通胀与发育迟缓（身高别年龄Z评分（HAZ））之间的关系。
该研究利用了世界粮食计划署数据库中的食品价格数据以及2014年和2017 - 2018年孟加拉国人口与健康调查（BDHS）中的营养不良（发育迟缓）信息。这包括2009年至2018年的整个研究期间。食品价格通过每个孩子的出生月份与BDHS数据集相关联。对于每个孩子，记录其出生前9个月至出生后5个月（包括出生月份）的平均食品价格，以计算逐月通胀率。通过比较每个项目一个月与前一个月的价格总和并除以前一个月的总价来计算大米（粗粮）、油、小麦粉和扁豆的这种通胀率。使用广义线性回归模型来评估食品价格通胀与发育迟缓之间的关系，将发育迟缓作为因变量。其他解释变量包括财富指数、孩子性别、身高、体重、母亲教育程度、受访者当前是否怀孕以及母乳喂养状况。
我们的研究表明，食品价格通胀对发育迟缓有显著的负面影响，系数为 - 0.127（p < 0.001）。此外，我们还确定了其他几个与发育迟缓也有显著负相关的因素，包括财富指数（p < 0.001）、母亲教育水平（p < 0.001）、母亲怀孕状况（p < 0.001）、母乳喂养（p < 0.001）、孩子年龄（p < 0.001）。孩子的体重（p < 0.001）对发育迟缓有显著的正向影响。然而，我们没有发现男孩和女孩在发育迟缓方面有任何显著差异。
总之，本研究结果强调了食品价格通胀对儿童发育迟缓的显著负面影响，强调需要将这一因素与其他因素一并考虑。这些结果突出了应对食品价格通胀作为发育迟缓关键决定因素的关键作用，与各种其他促成因素一起，在抗击儿童营养不良的努力中。
