Socio-economic influences on gender inequalities in child health in rural Bangladesh
Rousham, E.K.
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 50(8): 560-564
1996
ISSN/ISBN: 0954-3007 PMID: 8863018 Document Number: 302645
During February 1989-June 1990 in Bangladesh, local field assistants collected data on 1366 children 2-6 years old, attending maternal and child health clinics operated by a nongovernmental organization, and living in 13 villages in Jamalpur District situated on the banks of the Jamuna River. The field assistants made home visits to record child morbidity every 2 weeks and to measure child height and weight once a month. During January-April 1989, this area suffered from extensive food shortages due to a prolonged drought and one of the worst floods recorded in Bangladesh. Gender bias was not apparent in farming and trading/employee households. In landless households (i.e., fathers' occupation was laborer), girls were significantly shorter and less heavy than boys (p 0.001), however. During a natural disaster, fathers' occupation significantly interacted with sex (p 0.05). Specifically, children who were both female and living in a landless household were more likely to have poor nutritional status than children who were female and living in a farming or trading/employee household and children who were male and living in a landless household. This interaction was not apparent as local conditions improved. Over the 16 months following the natural disaster, landless girls grew significantly more in height-for-age and weight-for-age than landless boys (p 0.001). In other words, these girls experienced more catch-up growth than the boys. At the end of the study, nutritional status varied only according to socioeconomic status but not according to gender. These findings suggest that gender bias within this population depends on changes in food availability and the rural economy. Thus, child nutrition programs should target landless girls, who are at highest risk of gender discrimination and malnutrition during economic adversity.