Abstract
Introduction
Stunting, measured how short to their ages, in children under two years remains a public health concern in Cambodia. The Cambodia Demographic Health Survey, 2014 shows high rates of malnutrition in children under 5 years, 32% of whom have chronic malnutrition or stunting. This study aimed to assess the association between low birth weight (LBW) and stunting among children under 2 years old between 2016 and 2020 in the Soutr Nikum operational health district (OD), Siem Reap Province, Cambodia.
Methods
The secondary data from the end-line evaluation survey of the project Starting Strong Project (SSP) from World Vision International-Cambodia (WVI-C) included 481 caregivers of children 0-23 months of age. Multivariate logistic regression was used to test the association between stunting and low birth weight (LBW), adjusting for child gender, child’s age group, mother’s age group, caregiver’s education level, and mother’s health checkup during pregnancy at least 4 times.
Results
The prevalence of stunting was 14.1%, and low birth weight was 11.4% among children under two years old. After adjusting for potential confounders, the children who were born with birth weights less than 2500 grams were 3.7 times more likely to be stunted than normal birth weight children (95% CI: 1.31-10.41, p-value = 0.013). Boys had lower odds of having stunting than girls (AOR=0.76, 95% CI: 0.34-1.69). Children with mothers who had fewer than 4 antenatal visits were 3.10 times more likely to be stunted (95% CI: 0.70-13.74) than children who had mothers with more than 4 antenatal visits.
Conclusion
In sum, there was a statistically significant association between stunting and low birth weight. In addition, the child’s gender is also a main predictor of stunting among children aged 0-23 months. The findings could be used as evidence for health policy makers, relevant stakeholders and program implementers to enforce and strengthen mother’s knowledge to understand the importance of nutrition, health, and care during 1000 days of life to have a better nutritional status both mother and children.