Socio-economic determinants of severe and moderate stunting among under-five children of rural Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION Malnutrition among under-five children is a chronic problem in developing countries. This study explores the socio-economic determinants of severe and moderate stunting among under-five children of rural Bangladesh. METHODS The study used data from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Cross-sectional and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to assess the effect of the socio-demographic variables on moderate and severe stunting over normal among the children. RESULTS Findings revealed that over two-fifths of the children were stunted, of which 26.3% were moderately stunted and 15.1% were severely stunted. The multivariate multinomial logistic regression analysis yielded significantly increased risk of severe stunting (OR=2.53, 95% CI=1.34-4.79) and moderate stunting (OR=2.37, 95% CI=1.47-3.83) over normal among children with a thinner mother. Region, father's education, toilet facilities, child's age, birth order of children and wealth index were also important determinants of children's nutritional status. CONCLUSION Development and poverty alleviation programmes should focus on the disadvantaged rural segments of people to improve their nutritional status.