Children’s nutritional status and poverty

This study explores the pathways through which individual and household factors are associated with changes in child nutritional status. In this study the concept of nutrition deprivation is used in two ways: firstly as indicated by child’s anthropometric measures, and secondly in terms of food consumption. The main question is how time, individual and household factors influence child nutritional status. The study uses the Pakistan Panel Data covering four rural districts of Pakistan. A child health framework is employed to establish the mechanism of child nutritional status by linking the various factors at child, household and community levels. This framework specifies poverty as the root cause of malnutrition. Various statistical modelling techniques for analysing the longitudinal data are used in this study, e.g. growth curve models. The results indicate poor nutritional status of children while associations are found between poverty and stunting moreover chronic poverty is associated with wasting. Finally, food consumption patterns mostly revolve around the staple food, and even in the top expenditure quintile this pattern remains persistent.