the Institute of Development Studies and partner organisations
Browse
- No file added yet -

Factors Associated with Catch‐Up Growth in Early Infancy in Rural Pakistan: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Women's Work and Nutrition Study

Download (530.69 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-09-05, 21:52 authored by Rebecca Pradeilles, Tom Norris, Elaine Ferguson, Haris Gazdar, Sidra Mazhar, Hussain Bux Mallah, Azmat Budhani, Rashid Mehmood, Saba Aslam, Alan D. Dangour, Elizabeth Allen
The adverse health impacts of early infant stunting can be partially ameliorated by early catch‐up growth. Few studies have examined predictors of and barriers to catch‐up growth to identify intervention points for improving linear growth during infancy. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of, and factors associated with, catch‐up growth among infants in Pakistan. A longitudinal study of mother–infant dyads (n = 1,161) was conducted in rural Sindh province, with enrolment between December 2015 and February 2016 (infants aged 0.5–3 months), and follow‐up (n = 1035) between November 2016 and January 2017 (infants aged 9–15 months). The outcome was catch‐up growth (change in conditional length‐for‐age z‐scores >0.67 between baseline and endline). Associated factors were examined using multivariable logistic regression analyses. The prevalence of stunting was 45.3% at baseline and 60.7% at follow‐up. 22.8% of infants exhibited catch‐up growth over this period. Factors positively associated with catch‐up growth included maternal height (odds ratio (OR) = 1.08 [1.05–1.11]), household wealth (OR = 3.61 [1.90–6.84]), maternal (OR = 2.43 [1.30–4.56]) or paternal (OR = 1.46 [1.05–2.03]) education, and households with two or more adult females (OR = 1.91 [1.26–2.88]). Factors negatively associated with catch‐up growth were two (OR = 0.64 [0.45–0.89]) or three or more (OR = 0.44 [0.29–0.66]) preschool children in the household and the infant being currently breastfed (OR = 0.59 [0.41–0.88]). Catch‐up growth was exhibited among approximately a quarter of infants despite living in challenging environments associated with extremely high rates of early infant stunting. Several modifiable factors were identified that might represent suitable programme intervention points to off‐set early infant stunting in rural Pakistan.

Funding

Department for International Development, UK Government

History

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Citation

Pradeilles, R.; Norris, T.; Ferguson, E. et al. 'Factors Associated with Catch‐Up Growth in Early Infancy in Rural Pakistan: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Women's Work and Nutrition Study', Maternal & Child Nutrition, 21 October 2018

Series

Maternal & Child Nutrition 21 October 2018

IDS Item Types

Article

Copyright holder

© 2018 The Authors. Maternal and Child Nutrition Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Country

Pakistan

Language

en

Project identifier

LANSA::752f8189-3789-4438-be29-585edbe66660::600

Usage metrics

    Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia (LANSA)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC