Low maternal education and socioeconomic status were associated with household food insecurity in children under five with diarrhoea in Bangladesh

Type Journal Article - Acta Paediatrica
Title Low maternal education and socioeconomic status were associated with household food insecurity in children under five with diarrhoea in Bangladesh
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
URL http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/26719122
Abstract
Aim
Household food insecurity (HFI) is insufficient access to nutritionally safe and adequate foods to meet the dietary needs for an active and healthy life. We examined the prevalence and determinants of HFI in Bangladeshi children under five with diarrhoea.

Methods
This study included 365 children (55% boys) who had diarrhoea in the two weeks before the 2011 Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS-2011). The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was used to assess HFI and Pearson's chi-square test and binary logistic regression analysis were used to investigate the association between HFI and multilevel factors.

Results
The prevalence of HFI among children under five with diarrhoea in the two weeks prior to the BDHS-2011 survey was 48%. HFI was significantly higher among the children of uneducated mothers, who were two times more likely to experience HFI, with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.14 and children who were from the lowest socio-economic status families, who were more than seven times more likely to experience HFI, with an adjusted OR of 7.55.

Conclusion
Low maternal education and low socio-economic status were significantly associated with HFI in Bangladeshi children under five with diarrhoea and public health campaigns should take this into account.

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