Dietary Diversity, Childcare Practices and Nutritional Status of Pakistani Children: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country

Maryam  Sadiq; Tuba Iqbal; Syed Hammad Hussain Shah; Sidra Younas; Ramla Shah

doi:10.56810/jpbm.004.02.0159

Authors

Maryam Sadiq Department of Statistics, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad
Tuba Iqbal Riphah International University
Syed Hammad Hussain Shah University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad
Sidra Younas Department of Statistics, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad
Ramla Shah Department of Statistics, University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56810/jpbm.004.02.0159

Keywords:

Childcare practices, Dietary diversity, Nutritional status, Regression, Socio-demographic

Abstract

Objectives: Improved quality of dietary diversity and care practices can play a significant role in alleviating child malnutrition in middle income countries such as Pakistan. Addressing this deficiency, the present study primarily aims to explore the influence of dietary diversity and care practices on children’s height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ). Study Design: Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey based cross-sectional study in Pakistan for 2014. Methods: The response variable was Child’s nutritional status in the form of HAZ as defined by UNICEF. Multivariate regression analysis was used to perform the analysis. This analysis included children aged 6-36 months (n= 8097). Results: Dietary diversity scores (DDS) and childcare practices (CCP) were found to be associated with child’s nutritional status. Other identified significant predictors of HAZ were Child’s age, residence, maternal education and wealth index. No subgroup differences in the relationship of DDS/HAZ and CCP/HAZ were observed by interaction analyses. Conclusions: Statistical significant associations of dietary diversity and childcare practices with child’s nutritional status was found. This calls for further research in Pakistan to refine DD and CCP composition for children considering different socio-demographic settings before further strategies and recommendations for child growth and development.