Abstract
Introduction
The prevalence of stunting, (how short children compared to their age) among children aged under 5
years in Siem Reap province is higher (36%), than the national average, while the latrine utilization in
the rural areas is as low as about 40%. . The study objective is to access the relationship between the
latrine utilization and stunting among children under 5 years old in the Soutr Nikum Operational
Health District (OD), Siem Reap province, Cambodia.
Methods
Data from a community based cross-sectional study, conducted from the mid of November to
December 2016 at the Soutr Nikum Operational Health District was used. A total of 602 mother-child
paired was included in the analysis. Mothers who had children aged 0-59 months were selected from
the updated census in the Soutr Nikum OD, conducted by WVI-C team. The mothers were interviewed
using structure questionnaire, and children’s anthropometry was measured. A forward stepwise
selection multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify the relationship
between latrine utilization and stunting among children under 5 at the time of the survey.
Results
Overall, 28.8% of the children were stunted and 61.1% of households had accessed to improved
sanitation facility. There was no significant association between latrine use and stunting. However,
child’s gender and age, child with low birth weight (<2500 grams), and maternal dietary diversity food
consumption at pregnancy were associated with the stunting. Boys were more likely to have higher
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stunting than girls (AOR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.01-2.23, p=0.042), children aged 6-23 months (AOR = 4.44,
95% CI: 1.29-15.30, p=0.018) and 24-59 months (AOR = 10.96, 95% CI: 3.22-37.21, p<0.001), children
with low weight at birth (AOR = 3.47, 95% CI: 1.82-6.61, p<0.001), and maternal dietary diversity food
consumption less than 4 food groups at pregnancy were found to be strongly associated with higher
risk of stunting (AOR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.08-3.33, p=0.026).
Conclusion
The study demonstrated that no relationship between latrine utilization and stunting among children
aged under 5 years in Soutr Nikum OD, but there are significant association with stunting when being
a male child, having lower birth weight, having older age and the maternal diversity food consumption
less than 4 food groups. Further efforts to reduce the prevalence of stunting among children and
increase the coverage of latrine utilization require a multi sectoral approaches. Moreover, additional
research should be conducted to add the observation of latrine utilization among children.