Children living in homes with livestock may have both an increased risk of enteric infections and improved access
to food, and therefore improved nutritional status. Few studies, however, have characterized these relationships in
tandem. This study investigated the association between child health and household ownership of livestock. A crosssectional
study was performed using data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 30 sub-Saharan
African countries with 215,996 rural children under 5 years of age from 2005 to 2015. Logistic regression was
performed for each country to estimate the relationship between a log2 increase in the number of livestock owned by
the household and three child-health outcomes: 2-week prevalence of diarrhea, stunting, and all-cause mortality.
Results for each country were combined using meta-analyses. Most countries (22 of 30) displayed an odds ratio
(OR) less than 1 for child stunting associated with livestock (pooled OR = 0.97; 95% confidence interval [CI] =
0.95, 0.99). The results for diarrhea were more even with 13 countries displaying ORs greater than 1 and seven
displaying ORs less than 1. Most countries (22 of 30) displayed an OR greater than 1 for child mortality (pooled OR
= 1.04; 95% CI = 1.02, 1.06). All meta-analyses displayed significant heterogeneity by country. Our analysis is
consistent with the theory that livestock may have a dual role as protective against stunting, an indicator of chronic
malnutrition, and a risk factor for all-cause mortality in children, which may be linked to acute infections. The
heterogeneity by country, however, indicates more data are needed on specific household livestock management
practices.