IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/gjhsjl/v13y2021i9p76.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socio-Economic Disparities in Under-Five Child Malnutrition in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Oluwabukola O. Adesuyi
  • Urbanus M. Urbanus M. Kioko
  • Martine O. Oleche

Abstract

INTRODUCTION- Recent attention over the health, wellbeing and nutritional intake of children below five years of age has grown tremendously. This is mainly because these years are crucial to a child’s survival, growth and development; and if not handled properly could unfavorably affect the well-being status and efficiency of the child in later adult life. The study focused on malnutrition of children under the age of five in relation to their socio-economic status. It was measured by stunting, wasting and underweight. METHODOLOGY- Data from the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS)/General Household Survey (GHS) 2015/2016 Nigeria was used for analysis. Malnutrition was measured using the three anthropometric measures which are expressed in terms of Z-scores namely- Stunting- height-for-age (HAZ), Wasting- weight-for-height (WHZ) and Underweight- weight-for-age (WAZ). The socioeconomic disparities in malnutrition were checked according to gender, place of residence and geo-political zones in Nigeria. While the concentration index and curves were used to check for the magnitude of inequality in malnutrition ascribable to the socio-economic status. RESULTS- The percentage of children stunted was the highest with 37.8 percent, followed by the percentage of children underweight to be 20.25 and children wasted was 9.63 percent. The percentage of stunting, wasting and underweight were considerably greater in male children compare to the female children. Stunting and underweight were responsive to the household socioeconomic status. A higher percentage of children below five years of age who were stunted, wasted and underweight lived in the rural areas of Nigeria compare to the children living in the urban areas. The rate of stunting was highest in the North West with a 52.91 percent, followed by North East with 43 percent, and lowest in the South South with 20.67 percent. The concentration indices analysis revealed that stunting, wasting and underweight all had negative signs signifying concentration among the poor household children. Finally, as one moves up the ladder of the socioeconomic status, a significant fall in the rate of stunting is witnessed. Therefore, increasing the income of the poorest in a society is a sound strategy to curb the high rates of stunting in the socio-economically deprived segments of the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Oluwabukola O. Adesuyi & Urbanus M. Urbanus M. Kioko & Martine O. Oleche, 2021. "Socio-Economic Disparities in Under-Five Child Malnutrition in Nigeria," Global Journal of Health Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(9), pages 1-76, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:gjhsjl:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:76
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/download/0/0/45795/48721
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/gjhs/article/view/0/45795
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Paci, Pierella, 1989. "Equity in the Finance and Delivery of Health Care: Some Tentative Cross-country Comparisons," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 5(1), pages 89-112, Spring.
    2. Haddad, Lawrence & Ruel, Marie T. & Garrett, James L., 1999. "Are Urban Poverty and Undernutrition Growing? Some Newly Assembled Evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(11), pages 1891-1904, November.
    3. Thomas, Duncan & Strauss, John & Henriques, Maria-Helena, 1990. "Child survival, height for age and household characteristics in Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 197-234, October.
    4. Kakwani, Nanak & Wagstaff, Adam & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 1997. "Socioeconomic inequalities in health: Measurement, computation, and statistical inference," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 87-103, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tavares, Lara Patrício & Zantomio, Francesca, 2017. "Inequity in healthcare use among older people after 2008: The case of southern European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(10), pages 1063-1071.
    2. García-Gómez, Pilar & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores & Oliva-Moreno, Juan, 2015. "Inequity in long-term care use and unmet need: Two sides of the same coin," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 147-158.
    3. Hai Zhong, 2010. "The impact of missing data in the estimation of concentration index: a potential source of bias," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 11(3), pages 255-266, June.
    4. Chen, Zhuo & Roy, Kakoli, 2009. "Calculating concentration index with repetitive values of indicators of economic welfare," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 169-175, January.
    5. Bancalari, Antonella & Berlinski, Samuel & Buitrago, Giancarlo & García, María Fernanda & Mata, Dolores de la & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2023. "Health Inequalities in Latin American and the Caribbean: Child, Adolescent, Reproductive, Metabolic Syndrome and Mental Health," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13158, Inter-American Development Bank.
    6. Wiktoria Wróblewska, 2012. "Nierówności społeczne w stanie zdrowia w Polsce – analiza na podstawie samooceny stanu zdrowia oraz poziomu wykształcenia," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 28, pages 65-84.
    7. Lumme, Sonja & Sund, Reijo & Leyland, Alastair H. & Keskimäki, Ilmo, 2012. "Socioeconomic equity in amenable mortality in Finland 1992–2008," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 905-913.
    8. Jean-Pierre Lachaud, 2004. "Urbanisation, malnutrition des enfants et sexe au Burkina Faso : une analyse économétrique spatiale," Revue d’économie du développement, De Boeck Université, vol. 12(1), pages 35-70.
    9. Richard Layte & Brian Nolan, 2004. "Equity in the Utilisation of Health Care in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 35(2), pages 111-134.
    10. Costa-Font, Joan & Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jiménez-Rubio, Dolores, 2014. "Income inequalities in unhealthy life styles in England and Spain," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 66-75.
    11. Eibhlin Hudson & David Madden & Irene Mosca, 2015. "A Formal Investigation of Inequalities in Health Behaviours After Age 50 on the Island of Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 46(2), pages 233-265.
    12. Cecilia González & Patricia Triunfo, 2018. "Inequidad en el acceso a los servicios de salud en Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0718, Department of Economics - dECON.
    13. Tzu-Ying Chen & Yi-Hsin Elsa Hsu & Rachel J. Huang & Larry Y. Tzeng, 2021. "Making socioeconomic health inequality comparisons when health concentration curves intersect," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 57(4), pages 875-899, November.
    14. Philip Clarke & Tom Van Ourti, 2009. "Correcting the Bias in the Concentration Index when Income is Grouped," CEPR Discussion Papers 599, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Adam Wagstaff & Daniel Cotlear & Patrick Hoang-Vu Eozenou & Leander R. Buisman, 2016. "Measuring progress towards universal health coverage: with an application to 24 developing countries," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 32(1), pages 147-189.
    16. González Álvarez, M Luz & Barranquero, Antonio Clavero, 2009. "Inequalities in health care utilization in Spain due to double insurance coverage: An Oaxaca-Ransom decomposition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 793-801, September.
    17. Rosa M. Urbanos-Garrido, "undated". "Measurement of Inequity in the Delivery of Public Health Care: Evidence from Spain (1997)," Working Papers 2001-15, FEDEA.
    18. Christoffer Sonne-Schmidt & Finn Tarp & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2013. "Ordinal Multidimensional Inequality," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-097, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Lee, Miaw-Chwen & Jones, Andrew Michael, 2007. "Understanding differences in income-related health inequality between geographic regions in Taiwan using the SF-36," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(2-3), pages 186-195, October.
    20. Esso–Hanam Atake, 2021. "Socio‐economic inequality in maternal health care utilization in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Evidence from Togo," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 288-301, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:ibn:gjhsjl:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:76. 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.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.