Impact of Orphanhood on Underweight Prevalence in Sub-Saharan Africa

Jonathan Rivers · John Ogden Mason · Eva A. Silvestre · Stuart Gillespie · Mary I. Mahy · Roeland Monasch

18 citations0/0 files storedFood and Nutrition Bulletin

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare Child Nutrition and Water Access Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In Africa, approximately 25 million people live with HIV/AIDS and 12 million children are orphaned. Although evidence indicates that orphans risk losing opportunities for adequate education, health care, and future employment, the immediate effects of orphanhood on child nutritional status remain poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: This paper assesses the nutritional impact of orphanhood, with particular emphasis on taking account of various factors potentially confounding or masking these impacts. METHODS: Child anthropometry and orphan status were examined in 23 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys throughout sub-Saharan Africa, which were subsequently merged into larger, region-specific datasets (East, West, and Southern Africa). To compare orphans and nonorphans, linear regression and probit models were developed, taking account of orphan status and type, presence of a surviving parent in the household, household structure, child age and sex, urban versus rural residence, and current wealth status. RESULTS: Few differences emerged between orphans and nonorphans in controlled and uncontrolled comparisons, regardless of orphan type, presence of surviving parent, or household structure. Age differentials did confound nutritional comparisons, although in the counterintuitive direction, with orphans (who were 8 months older on average) becoming less malnourished when age differences were taken into account. Wealth did appear to be associated with orphanhood status, although it did not significantly confound nutritional comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: Orphans were not consistently more malnourished than nonorphans, even when potential confounding variables were examined. Since household wealth status is likely to change after becoming affected by HIV ruling out wealth as a potential confounder would require more detailed, prospective studies.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 18 citations exist upstream.

References

2004Orphanhood and childcare patterns in sub-Saharan Africa 2003Dimensions of the emerging orphan crisis in sub-Saharan Africa 2003Health and nutritional status of orphans <6 years old cared for by relatives in western Kenya 2005Assessing the health status of young AIDS and other orphans in Kampala, Uganda 2000The Impact of Adult Deaths on Children's Health in Northwestern Tanzania 2000The Impact of Adult Deaths on Children's Health in Northwestern Tanzania

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.