Determinants of Nutrition Outcomes in Under-five Children: Experiences from Malawi

Nutrition disorders in under-five children continue to be one of the most important development concerns for Malawi government and its development partners. Tackling such a crisis requires an initial understanding of its underlying drivers. This study therefore, examines the determinants of malnutrition in under-five children in Malawi using econometric based tools. We use 2010/2011 Malawi s Third Integrated Household Survey data. Three anthropometric indices are derived to establish child nutrition status and Logit model is used to examine the relationship between the nutrition status and the socioeconomic, institutional, and demographic characteristics of the children. About 11.4% were found to weight too little for their height (wasting), 30.6% were weighing too little for their age (underweight) and about 48% were too short for their age (stunted). The results establish evidence that nutrition status in under-five children is strongly associated with maternal education, location, water quality, growth monitoring, number of daily meals, dependency ratio and household size. The paper concludes by drawing the policy implications of the present findings. Acknowledgement