article · BMC Women s Health
Child growth faltering remains a serious public health challenge globally and in Ethiopia. An analysis of nationally representative data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey examined how women's empowerment connects to nutritional outcomes among children under five years of age. Using standard indices, the evaluation focused on three primary areas: attitude towards violence, social independence, and household decision-making. The results demonstrate that higher levels of empowerment across each of these three domains correlate with statistically significant reductions in child stunting and underweight status. Ensuring women are empowered within households and wider communities presents a viable pathway for improving child nutrition outcomes. Incorporating gender empowerment principles into national health initiatives and social frameworks offers an evidence-based approach to mitigating early childhood undernutrition in developing settings.
Childhood malnutrition and growth faltering cause lasting developmental harm and remain persistent global health concerns. By demonstrating a direct statistical link between maternal empowerment and reduced rates of stunting and underweight children, this research highlights how social and gender equity initiatives can strengthen conventional nutritional interventions and public health strategies.
The abstract does not indicate a direct commercial application pathway, as the findings are primarily intended for policymakers, public health professionals, and development organisations. The insights represent early-stage epidemiological evidence that can be integrated into the design, monitoring, and targeting of maternal health programmes and child nutrition interventions.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
BACKGROUND: Despite numerous national and international efforts to alleviate child growth faltering, it remains a global health challenge. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of women's empowerment in a wide range of public health topics, such as the utilization of maternal healthcare services, agricultural productivity, and child nutrition. However, in Ethiopia, the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutritional status is not studied at the national level. This study aimed to determine the association between women's empowerment and growth faltering in under-5 children in Ethiopia. METHODS: The data source for this analysis is the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS): a nationally representative household survey on healthcare. The EDHS employed a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. We computed standard women's empowerment indices, following the Survey-based Women's emPowERment index approach. A multilevel logistic regression model that accounted for cluster-level random effects was used to estimate the association between women's empowerment and child growth faltering (stunting, wasting and underweight). RESULTS: Attitude to violence, social independence, and decision-making were the three domains of women's empowerment that were associated with child growth faltering. One standard deviation increase in each domain of empowerment was associated with a reduction in the odds of stunting: attitude towards violence (AOR = 0.92; 95% CI 0.88-0.96; p < 0.001), social independence (AOR = 0.95; 95% CI 0.89-0.99; p = 0.049), and decision-making (AOR = 0.93; 95% CI 0.87-0.99; p = 0.023). Similarly, each standard deviation increase in attitude towards violence (AOR = 0.93; 95% CI 0.89-0.98; p = 0.008), social independence (AOR = 0.91; 95% CI 0.86-0.97; p = 0.002), and decision-making (AOR = 0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.99; p = 0.020) were associated with a decrease in the odds of having underweight child. CONCLUSIONS: Ensuring women's empowerment both in the household and in the community could have the potential to decrease stunting and underweight in a rapidly developing country like Ethiopia. Policymakers and health professionals need to consider women's empowerment in this unique context to improve nutritional outcomes for children and alleviate growth faltering.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1186/s12905-021-01183-x
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
