IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/sajeco/v76y2008i4p628-640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants Of Child Nutrition In Malawi

Author

Listed:
  • Ephraim W Chirwa
  • Harold Pe Ngalawa

Abstract

This paper investigates factors that determine child malnutrition in Malawi. Measuring child nutrition using anthropometric measures, the study finds that child malnutrition worsens with age until a certain critical age beyond which it starts to improve and that boys are more at risk than girls. We also find evidence that child malnutrition is more prevalent in children that fall sick regularly and in households that draw water from a well, protected or not. In addition, children who come from households that have mother/female household heads who are economically empowered, in terms of being in salaried employment or working in a family business, tend to be better nourished.

Suggested Citation

  • Ephraim W Chirwa & Harold Pe Ngalawa, 2008. "Determinants Of Child Nutrition In Malawi," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 628-640, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:4:p:628-640
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00212.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00212.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00212.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dsete, Joanne & Levin, Carol E. & Maxwell, Daniel G., 1998. "Does urban agriculture help prevent malnutrition?," FCND discussion papers 45, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Glick, Peter & Sahn, David E, 1998. "Maternal Labour Supply and Child Nutrition in West Africa," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 325-355, August.
    3. Engle, Patrice L. & Menon, Purnima & Haddad, Lawrence, 1999. "Care and Nutrition: Concepts and Measurement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1309-1337, August.
    4. Engle, Patrice L. & Menon, Purnima & Haddad, Lawrence J., 1996. "Care and nutrition: concepts and measurement," FCND discussion papers 18, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Garrett, James L. & Ruel, Marie T., 1999. "Are Determinants of Rural and Urban Food Security and Nutritional Status Different? Some Insights from Mozambique," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 1955-1975, November.
    6. Marini, Alessandra & Gragnolati, Michele, 2003. "Malnutrition and poverty in Guatemala," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2967, The World Bank.
    7. Maxwell, Daniel & Levin, Carol & Csete, Joanne, 1998. "Does urban agriculture help prevent malnutrition? Evidence from Kampala," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 411-424, October.
    8. Ephraim Chirwa, 2008. "Effects of gender on the performance of micro and small enterprises in Malawi," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 347-362.
    9. Smith, Lisa Catherine & Haddad, Lawrence, 2001. "How important is improving food availability for reducing child malnutrition in developing countries?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 191-204, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julius Manda & Cornelis Gardebroek & Makaiko Khonje & Arega Alene & Munyaradzi Mutenje & Menale Kassie, 2016. "Determinants of child nutritional status in the eastern province of Zambia: the role of improved maize varieties," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(1), pages 239-253, February.
    2. G. M. Arif & Shujaat Farooq & Saman Nazir & Maryam Satti, 2014. "Child Malnutrition and Poverty: The Case of Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 53(2), pages 99-118.
    3. Maria Sassi, 2020. "Evidence of Between- and Within-Household Child Nutrition Inequality in Malawi: Does the Gender of the Household Head Matter?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(1), pages 28-50, January.
    4. Li Zhou & Xiaohong Chen & Lei Lei, 2018. "Intra-Household Allocation of Nutrients in an Opening China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-24, April.
    5. Mwale, Martin & Smith, Anja & von Fintel, Dieter, 2022. "Child nutrition and farm input subsidies: The complementary role of early healthcare and nutrition programs in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Ivica Petrikova & Melvine Anyango Otieno & Gertrude Were & Mahmoud Eltholth & Ana Rodriguez Mateos & Seeromanie Harding & Victoria Moran & Odipo Osano & Jennifer Cole, 2024. "Peri-urban agriculture and household food and nutrition security around Eldoret, Kenya," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 16(5), pages 1235-1263, October.
    7. Richard Mussa, 2015. "Intrahousehold and Interhousehold Child Nutrition Inequality in Malawi," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(1), pages 140-153, March.
    8. Seemab Gillani & Muhammad Nouman Shafiq & Muhammad Azhar Bhatti & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2022. "Impact of Economic Growth on Child Malnutrition in Pakistan: A Time Series Analysis," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(1), pages 149-163, March.
    9. Adediran, Olanrewaju Adewole, 2024. "The effect of women's decision-making on child nutritional outcomes in South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Matita, Mirriam & Chiwaula, Levison & Wadonda Chirwa, Ephraim & Mazalale, Jacob & Walls, Helen, 2022. "Subsidizing improved legume seeds for increased household dietary diversity: Evidence from Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme with implications for addressing malnutrition in all its forms," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fatma El-Hamidi & Ragui Assaad & Ahmed Akhter, 2000. "The Determinants of Employment Status in Egypt," Working Paper 269, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Sep 2006.
    2. Ajieroh, Victor, 2009. "A quantitative analysis of determinants of child and maternal malnutrition in Nigeria," NSSP working papers 10, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Rafael de Sousa Camelo & Priscilla Albuquerque Tavares & Carlos César Santejo Saiani, 2009. "Alimentação, Nutrição e Saúde em Programas de Transferência de Renda: Evidências para o Programa Bolsa Família," Economia, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics], vol. 10(4), pages 685-713.
    4. Garrett, James L. & Haddad, Lawrence James & Ruel, Marie T., 1999. "Some urban facts of life," FCND discussion papers 64, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Marie T. Ruel & James L. Garrett, 2004. "Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 1(2), pages 242-271.
    6. Smith, Lisa C. & Ruel, Marie T. & Ndiaye, Aida, 2005. "Why Is Child Malnutrition Lower in Urban Than in Rural Areas? Evidence from 36 Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1285-1305, August.
    7. Ruel, Marie T. & Levin, Carol E. & Armar-Klemesu, Margaret & Maxwell, Daniel & Morris, Saul S., 1999. "Good Care Practices Can Mitigate the Negative Effects of Poverty and Low Maternal Schooling on Children's Nutritional Status: Evidence from Accra," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 1993-2009, November.
    8. Mysbah Balagamwala & Haris Gazdar & Hussain Bux Mallah, 2015. "Synergy or Trade-Off between Agricultural Growth and Nutrition Women’s Work and Care," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 897-913.
    9. repec:ags:aaea22:335848 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. P. G. Ardeni & C. Tinonin, 2013. "Capability-Deprivation as Determinant of Underweight in Children: Perspectives from an Indian Case-Study," Working Papers wp904, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    11. Ndiaye, Aida & Ruel, Marie T. & Smith, Lisa C., 2004. "Why is child malnutrition lower in urban than rural areas?," FCND briefs 176, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Rae Lesser Blumberg & Kara Dewhurst & Soham G. Sen, 2013. "Gender-inclusive Nutrition Activities in South Asia : Volume 2. Lessons from Global Experiences," World Bank Publications - Reports 15980, The World Bank Group.
    13. Aoun, Nael & Matsuda, Hirotaka & Sekiyama, Makiko, 2015. "Geographical accessibility to healthcare and malnutrition in Rwanda," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 135-145.
    14. Smith, Lisa C., 1998. "Can FAO's measure of chronic undernourishment be strengthened?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 425-445, October.
    15. Haddad, Lawrence & Bhattarai, Saroj & Immink, Maarten & Kumar, Shubh, 1998. "Estimating the interactions between household food security and preschool diarrhea," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 241-261, November.
    16. Haddad, Lawrence James & Smith, Lisa C., 1999. "Explaining child malnutrition in developing countries," FCND discussion papers 60, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    17. Leslie Gray & Laureen Elgert & Antoinette WinklerPrins, 2020. "Theorizing urban agriculture: north–south convergence," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 869-883, September.
    18. Maxwell, Daniel & Levin, Carol & Csete, Joanne, 1998. "Does urban agriculture help prevent malnutrition? Evidence from Kampala," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 411-424, October.
    19. Anríquez, Gustavo & Daidone, Silvio & Mane, Erdgin, 2013. "Rising food prices and undernourishment: A cross-country inquiry," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 190-202.
    20. Beatrice Lorge Rogers & James Wirth & Kathy Macías & Parke Wilde, 2007. "Mapping Hunder: A Report on Mapping Malnutrition Prevalence in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Panama," Working Papers in Food Policy and Nutrition 34, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
    21. Mousumi Das & Ajay Sharma & Suresh Chandra Babu, 2018. "Pathways from agriculture-to-nutrition in India: implications for sustainable development goals," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(6), pages 1561-1576, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:76:y:2008:i:4:p:628-640. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/essaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.