Abstract:
Background: Undernutrition is one of the sustainable development goals among children under five years of age. East Africa still has high nutritionally insecure under-five children. Moreover,
the concurrent of stunting and wasting (StWa) is a common scenario among children under-five
years of age. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors associated with childhood stunting
and wasting simultaneously in East African regions.
Methods: Data for this study were obtained from the recent Demographic and Health Surveys
(DHS) in eight East African countries for a total of 63,732 children aged 0–59 months were
included. Bivariate copula regression models with probit and logit link function was used to
identify factors associated with concurrent of stunting and wasting among children aged 0–
59 months in eight disadvantaged East African regions.
Results: After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the odds of a child being stunted were
higher in Burundi than the odds of a child being wasted, and also the odds of children who had
both wasted and stunted were higher in Ethiopia. Mothers of children who had not antenatal
care visit, age of mother between 25-34 and 35-49, a child who had greater than four birth order
and greater than thirty-six birth interval was significantly associated with stunting. Wealth index
(least poor household), child’s age, sex of the child (male), and place of delivery at home were
reported to be associated with stunting, and wasting. Children who were born from families that
had not used media exposure, and had fever and cough two weeks before the survey were
significantly associated with wasting.
Conclusions: This study reveals that having diarrhea, the educational level of parents, the sex of
the child, place of delivery, the age of the mother's, breastfeeding and BMI were associated with
both stunting and wasting among children aged 0–59 months.
Keywords: Concurrent, East Africa, Spatial Analysis, Bivariate Copula, Stunting and Wasting