Modelling the trend and determinants of stunted children age 0-59 months in Nigeria

Prevalence of Stunting among under-five children is very high in many developing countries of the World. As step towards reducing the prevalence, there is need to identify the important determinants and the Trend of Stunting in the specific context. This paper examined the general trend and determinants of stunting among children 0-59 months in Nigeria. The anthropometric indices Height for age z-score was used to determine a child’s nutritional status as whether a child is stunted and the impacts of some socioeconomic, Demographic, Community level, Environmental and maternal factors on this are determined. Results from this study shows that Child’s sex, mother’s birth interval, Mother’s and their partner’s educational status, Locality, geopolitical zones of the mother’s, Wealth index, parents source of drinking water among others contributed positively to Stunting among children 0-59 months in Nigeria (p < 0.05). The general results showed that Stunting among less than five years children in Nigeria has significantly improves over time between 1990 and 2003 (p < 0.05). Although following a sinusoidal pattern. Five waves of national data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys for 1990, 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2013 were employed in the study. Keywords: Stunted, Malnutrition, Anthropometry, Height for Age, Logistic Regression