STUNTING AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AMONG URBAN AND RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN NIGERIA | 20th International Congress of Nutrition , Granada, Spain, September 15–20, 2013.
F. Samuel, Department of Human Nutrition, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Background and objectives: An important determinant of childhood undernutrition is the quality of the physical environment in which children live. The dynamics of how this relationship plays out in urban as compared to rural communities is the focus of this study.
Methods: Stunting was determined in a sample of 370 under-five children from households in three urban communities (low, medium and high-income), and one rural community in Oyo State, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire and an observation checklist were used to collect data. A composite environmental quality index (EQI) combining four indicators (water, sanitation, housing, waste disposal/drainage) was developed to describe the physical environment of childrens households. Using regression analysis, we projected hypothetical scenarios of stunting ahead under three different assumptions of environmental quality.
Results: Overall stunting prevalence was 29.7%; the low income urban community had the highest prevalence (44.4%) followed by the rural community (30%). EQI was lowest for the rural community (mean = 44.2% ± 11.01), and highest in the low-density urban community (76.5% ± 17.76). There was moderate and negative but highly significant association between the EQI with height-for-age (r = -.437, p =.000). Regression analysis showed that the EQI explained 15.5% of the variability in stunting in the urban, but only 1.8% for the rural children. Mean height-for-age z-scores increased with hypothetical improvements in EQI. For a 10% hypothetical improvement in EQI, mean z-scores increased by 7.3% for urban and 5.1% for rural. A larger increment of 20% in EQI yielded more improvement for urban (44.4%) than for the rural sample (11.7%).
Conclusions: Household environmental improvements have potential in reducing stunting in children in both urban and rural locations.However, this may play a greater role among urban than rural children possibly due to differentials in the quality of the physical environment and higher population density.
