The role men play on stunting in West African countries

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2021-07-13
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en
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In 2020 alone, 144 million children under the age of 5 were stunted. Previous studies have regularly drawn attention to the role women play on child undernutrition but have not highlighted men’s role on child undernutrition. Therefore, this study aimed to gain insight on the role men play on one form of child undernutrition, namely stunting in West African countries. This study has considered four men related variables, which are male-headed households, father’s education and occupation, grandfather’s co-residence, and polygamous culture. The data used in this study is obtained from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the World Governance Indicators (WGI). Data from the DHS database contains information on 58,845 children aged 6-59 months living in 12 West African countries covering the period of 1993-2020. To estimate relationships, bivariate analysis and multilevel logistics regression analyses were the methods applied. Results suggest that men do play a role on child undernutrition. Children whose father is highly educated and better-paid have lower odds of being stunted than other children. Moreover, children co-residing with their grandfathers have lower odds of being stunted. Finally, children in households led by males and children coming from polygamous households have a higher odds of being stunted.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen