Socioeconomic, education and health factors influencing growth of rural Haitian children

Abstract

Socioeconomic, education and health variables were examined to determine the underlying contributing factors to malnutrition in preschool Haitian children. A survey of 160 women and their child closest to weaning age was conducted in three regions of Haiti in January, 1978. Ordinary least squares multiple regression analysis was used to evaluate the combined power of the socioeconomic, education and health variables and the relative power of each independent variable separately as related to malnutrition. The amount of food or food money available had the greatest impact on the child's current nutritional health as measured by weight/age. Long term growth, as measured by height/age, was most affected by education variables. Health variables as a group were least effective in explaining growth, although the number of illnesses a child had had was highly related to growth. A strong interaction between weaning age and months spent in a nutrition center was found.