Nutritional status of mother-child pairs at household level identifying the presence and factors associated with double burden of malnutrition in Napal

Abstract

Double burden of malnutrition (DBMN) in mother-child pairs are prevalent globally. Moreover, nutrition transition in low and middle income countries has triggered such dual form of malnutrition. The study assessed the prevalence of double burden of malnutrition among mother-child pairs with mothers aged 18-49 years and children aged 6-59 and 6-23 months. A cross-sectional study was conducted utilizing the secondary datasets of Nepal Demographic Health Survey, 2016. In the process of analysis, 1973 mother-child pairs with children aged 6-59 and 691 pairs with children aged 6-23 months were included. The prevalence of DBMN among mother-child pairs with children aged 6-59 was 8.2 %. Moreover, after multivariate logistic regression analysis, region of residence (AOR: 3.737, 95% CI: 1.779-7.85 p = 0.001), age of the child (AOR: 3.877 95% CI: 1.672-8.990, p=0.002) and maternal education (AOR: 1.819 95% CI: 1.008-3.281, p=0.047) were significantly associated with DBMN. On the other hand, the prevalence of DBMN among mother-child pairs with children aged 6-23 months was 5.5%. Only, sex of the child (AOR: 2.142 95% CI: 0.987 - 4.650 p = 0.049) was significantly associated with DBMN after multivariate analysis. Hence, double burden of malnutrition exists in mother-child pairs at household level in Nepal. Appropriate interventions and strategies should be added up in the current nutrition policies to address all forms of malnutrition. In further days, studies could assess other forms of dual burden of malnutrition in Nepal.