IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0238191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explaining changes in wealth inequalities in child health: The case of stunting and wasting in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Chijioke O Nwosu
  • John Ele-Ojo Ataguba

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition is a major cause of child death, and many children suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition. Nigeria has the second-highest burden of stunting globally and a higher-than-average child wasting prevalence. Moreover, there is substantial spatial variation in the prevalence of stunting and wasting in Nigeria. This paper assessed the socioeconomic inequalities and determinants of the change in socioeconomic inequalities in child stunting and wasting in Nigeria between 2013 and 2018. Methods: Data came from the 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Socioeconomic inequalities in stunting and wasting were measured using the concentration curve and Erreygers’ corrected concentration index. A pro-poor concentration index is negative, meaning that the poor bear a disproportionately higher burden of stunting or wasting than the wealthy. A positive or pro-rich index is the opposite. Standard methodologies were applied to decompose the concentration index (C) while the Oaxaca-Blinder approach was used to decompose changes in the concentration indices (ΔC). Findings: The socioeconomic inequalities in child stunting and wasting were pro-poor in 2013 and 2018. The concentration indices for stunting reduced from -0.298 (2013) to -0.330 (2018) (ΔC = -0.032). However, the concentration indices for wasting increased from -0.066 to -0.048 (ΔC = 0.018). The changes in the socioeconomic inequalities in stunting and wasting varied by geopolitical zones. Significant determinants of these changes for both stunting and wasting were changes in inequalities in wealth, maternal education and religion. Under-five dependency, access to improved toilet facilities and geopolitical zone significantly explained changes in only stunting inequality, while access to improved water facilities only significantly determined the change in inequality in wasting. Conclusion: Addressing the socio-economic, spatial and demographic determinants of the changes in the socioeconomic inequalities in child stunting and wasting, especially wealth, maternal education and access to sanitation is critical for improving child stunting and wasting in Nigeria.

Suggested Citation

  • Chijioke O Nwosu & John Ele-Ojo Ataguba, 2020. "Explaining changes in wealth inequalities in child health: The case of stunting and wasting in Nigeria," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0238191
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0238191
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238191
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238191&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0238191?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eduard van der Merwe & Matthew Clance & Eleni Yitbarek, 2022. "Climate Change and Child Health: A Nigerian Perspective," Working Papers 202223, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    2. van der Merwe, Eduard & Clance, Matthew & Yitbarek, Eleni, 2022. "Climate change and child malnutrition: A Nigerian perspective," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0238191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.