Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis
<p class="first" id="d205409e156">Stunting is a major unresolved and growing health issue for India. There is a need for a broader interdisciplinary cross-sectoral approach in which disciplines such as the environment and health have to work together...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
UCL Press
2021-01-01
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| Series: | UCL Open Environment |
| Online Access: | https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000014 |
| _version_ | 1797896738112012288 |
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| author | Charlotte Lee Monica Lakhanpaul Bernardo Maza Stern Kaushik Sarkar Priti Parikh |
| author_facet | Charlotte Lee Monica Lakhanpaul Bernardo Maza Stern Kaushik Sarkar Priti Parikh |
| author_sort | Charlotte Lee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p class="first" id="d205409e156">Stunting is a major unresolved and growing health issue for India. There is a need
for a broader interdisciplinary cross-sectoral approach in which disciplines such
as the environment and health have to work together to co-develop integrated socio-culturally
tailored interventions. However, there remains scant evidence for the development
and application of such integrated, multifactorial child health interventions across
India’s most rural communities. In this paper we explore and demonstrate the linkages
between environmental factors and stunting thereby highlighting the scope for interdisciplinary
research. We examine the associations between household environmental characteristics
and stunting in children under 5 years of age across rural Rajasthan, India. We used
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)-3 India (2005–2006) data from 1194 children living
across 109,041 interviewed households. Multiple logistic regression analyses independently
examined the association between (i) the primary source of drinking water, (ii) primary
type of sanitation facilities, (iii) primary cooking fuel type, and (iv) agricultural
land ownership and stunting adjusting for child age. The results suggest, after adjusting
for child age, household access to (i) improved drinking water source was associated
with 23% decreased odds [odds ratio (OR) = 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.5–1.00],
(ii) improved sanitation facility was associated with 41% decreased odds (OR = 0.51,
95% CI 0.3–0.82), and (iii) agricultural land ownership was associated with 30% decreased
odds of childhood stunting (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.51–0.94]. The cooking fuel source was
not associated with stunting. Our findings indicate that a shift is needed from nutrition-specific
to contextually appropriate interdisciplinary solutions, which incorporate environmental
improvements. This will not only improve living conditions in deprived communities
but also help to tackle the challenge of childhood malnutrition across India’s most
vulnerable communities.
</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T07:47:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4b3d7da3d2e54448b9d4740cbf56d1e8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2632-0886 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T07:47:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | UCL Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | UCL Open Environment |
| spelling | doaj.art-4b3d7da3d2e54448b9d4740cbf56d1e82023-02-23T10:27:25ZengUCL PressUCL Open Environment2632-08862021-01-0121310.14324/111.444/ucloe.000014Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysisCharlotte LeeMonica LakhanpaulBernardo Maza SternKaushik SarkarPriti Parikh<p class="first" id="d205409e156">Stunting is a major unresolved and growing health issue for India. There is a need for a broader interdisciplinary cross-sectoral approach in which disciplines such as the environment and health have to work together to co-develop integrated socio-culturally tailored interventions. However, there remains scant evidence for the development and application of such integrated, multifactorial child health interventions across India’s most rural communities. In this paper we explore and demonstrate the linkages between environmental factors and stunting thereby highlighting the scope for interdisciplinary research. We examine the associations between household environmental characteristics and stunting in children under 5 years of age across rural Rajasthan, India. We used Demographic and Health Survey (DHS)-3 India (2005–2006) data from 1194 children living across 109,041 interviewed households. Multiple logistic regression analyses independently examined the association between (i) the primary source of drinking water, (ii) primary type of sanitation facilities, (iii) primary cooking fuel type, and (iv) agricultural land ownership and stunting adjusting for child age. The results suggest, after adjusting for child age, household access to (i) improved drinking water source was associated with 23% decreased odds [odds ratio (OR) = 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.5–1.00], (ii) improved sanitation facility was associated with 41% decreased odds (OR = 0.51, 95% CI 0.3–0.82), and (iii) agricultural land ownership was associated with 30% decreased odds of childhood stunting (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.51–0.94]. The cooking fuel source was not associated with stunting. Our findings indicate that a shift is needed from nutrition-specific to contextually appropriate interdisciplinary solutions, which incorporate environmental improvements. This will not only improve living conditions in deprived communities but also help to tackle the challenge of childhood malnutrition across India’s most vulnerable communities. </p>https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000014 |
| spellingShingle | Charlotte Lee Monica Lakhanpaul Bernardo Maza Stern Kaushik Sarkar Priti Parikh Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis UCL Open Environment |
| title | Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis |
| title_full | Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis |
| title_fullStr | Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis |
| title_short | Associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural India: a cross-sectional analysis |
| title_sort | associations between the household environment and stunted child growth in rural india a cross sectional analysis |
| url | https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000014 |
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