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Childhood malnutrition in households with contemporary siblings: a scenario from urban Bangladesh

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 1178–1179 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of the presence of under-5 siblings (⩾1) in a household on childhood malnutrition in urban Bangladesh. During 2000 and 2013, a total of 16 948 under-5 children were enrolled in the Diarrhoeal Disease Surveillance of icddr,b. Under-5 siblings were categorised as ⩾1 and none except the child himself. In univariate analysis, the presence of siblings was associated with 1.13 (risk ratios=1.13; 95% CI:1.06–1.20) times higher risk of being stunted, 1.17 (1.09–1.25) times for wasted and 1.19 (1.13–1.26) times underweight compared with their peers who did not have siblings. In multivariate analysis, such associations remained significant for stunting (1.08; 1.01–1.15), wasting (1.12; 1.04–1.21) and underweight (1.13, 1.06–1.19) after controlling for possible confounders such as age of child, sex, parental education, maternal employment, family size, wealth quintile and time (year). The presence of under-5 siblings increases the risk of malnutrition in children in urban Bangladesh.

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Acknowledgements

Hospital surveillance was funded by icddr,b and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh through IHP-HNPRP. icddr,b is also thankful to the Governments of Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom for providing core/unrestricted support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Nutrition and Food Security (CNFS), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    J Das, S K Das, S Ahmed, M J Chisti, M A Malek & A S G Faruque

  2. School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    S K Das, T Hasan & A A Mamun

  3. BRAC Institute of Global Health, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    T Hasan

  4. Department of Clinical Trial and Clinical Epidemiology, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan

    F Ferdous

  5. Department of Food and Nutrition, College of Home Economics, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    R Begum

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  1. J Das
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  2. S K Das
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  3. T Hasan
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  4. S Ahmed
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  5. F Ferdous
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  6. R Begum
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  7. M J Chisti
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  8. M A Malek
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  9. A A Mamun
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  10. A S G Faruque
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Correspondence to S K Das.

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Das, J., Das, S., Hasan, T. et al. Childhood malnutrition in households with contemporary siblings: a scenario from urban Bangladesh. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 1178–1179 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.75

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.75

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