Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Maternal Employment and Nutritional Status of Children (6 to 59 Months)

Mallika Shrestha, Sabanam Karki, Nirmala Bhatta

Asian Journal of Food Research and Nutrition · pp. 1–13 · Published 7 Jan 2025

10.9734/ajfrn/2025/v4i1220

Abstract

Background: Childhood malnutrition remains common in many parts of the world; the magnitude of worldwide stunting, and wasting in children under five years of age were 22.3 %, and 6.8 % respectively. Around 45% of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition. In Nepal, 25% and 8% of children under five years old were stunted and wasted, respectively. Aim: This study aimed to assess the nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months and its relationship with maternal employment. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Kritipur Municipality. A simple random sampling method was used to select a sample of 324 children aged 6-59 months. Anthropometric measurements of the children were conducted only after interviewing their mothers. Structured questionnaires and checklists were utilized to assess maternal employment and the nutritional status of children aged 6–59 months. The collected data were coded, entered into Epi Data 3.1 software, and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were used to explore associations between dependent and independent variables. Results: The overall result revealed that the prevalence of stunting was 19.4%, of which 15.2% and 23.8% were in children of employed and unemployed mothers, respectively. Low weight for age was 1.8% and wasting was about 1.8%. There was a statistically significant association between maternal employment and Stunting. Moreover, chronic malnutrition (stunting) was influenced by family type, child age, caretaker, exclusive breastfeeding, and complementary feeding practices. Conclusion: The study suggest that nutritional intervention efforts should be prioritize to enhance maternal nutritional education and expand employment opportunities and support for working mothers in the workplace.

Childhood Nutrition maternal employment malnutrition exclusive breastfeeding practice stunting

References (9)

  1. 1 Home visits: a strategy to improve newborn survival - Authors' reply [DOI]
  2. 2 Severe acute malnutrition and infection [DOI]
  3. 3 Prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors [DOI]
  4. 4 Exclusive breastfeeding and maternal employment among mothers of infants from three to five months old in the Fafan zone, Somali regional state of Ethiopia: a comparative cross-sectional study [DOI]
  5. 5 Maternal employment and child health in Nepal: The importance of job type and timing across the child's first five years [DOI]
  6. 6 Effect of a baby‐friendly workplace support intervention on exclusive breastfeeding in Kenya [DOI]
  7. 7 Nutrition in Nepal: Three decades of commitment to children and women [DOI]
  8. 8 Role of Women’s Empowerment in Determining Child Stunting in Eastern India and Bangladesh
  9. 9 Global Nutrition Report [DOI]

Cited by 0

No indexed citations yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

4

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

0

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.