title: Higher household expenditure on animal-source and nongrain foods lowers the risk of stunting among children 0-59 months old in Indonesia: implications of rising food prices.
abstract: Because the global financial crisis and high food prices affect food consumption, we characterized the relationship between stunting and nongrain food expenditure at the household level among children 0-59 mo old in Indonesia's rural and urban poor population. Expenditure and height-for-age data were obtained from a population-based sample of 446,473 children in rural and 143,807 in urban poor areas in Indonesia. Expenditure on food was grouped into categories: animal, plant, total nongrain, and grain. The prevalence of stunting in rural and urban poor areas was 33.8 and 31.2%, respectively. In rural areas, the odds ratios (OR) (5th vs. first quintile) for stunting were similar for proportion of household expenditure on animal (0.87; 95% CI = 0.85-0.90; P < 0.0001), plant (0.86; 95% CI = 0.84-0.88; P < 0.0001), and total nongrain (0.85; 95% CI = 0.83-0.87; P < 0.0001). In urban poor areas, the relationship between stunting and proportion of household expenditure on animal sources was stronger than in rural areas (OR 0.78; 95% CI = 0.74-0.81; P < 0.0001), whereas the relationship with nongrain was similar to rural areas (OR 0.88; 95% CI = 0.85-0.92; P < 0.0001) and no relationship was observed with plant sources (OR 0.97; 95% CI = 0.93-1.01; P = 0.13). For grain expenditure, OR for stunting in highest vs. lowest quintile was 1.21 (95% CI = 1.18-1.24; P < 0.0001) in rural and 1.09 (95%CI = 1.04-1.13; P < 0.0001) in urban poor areas. Thus, households that spent a greater proportion on nongrain foods, in particular animal source foods, had a lower prevalence of child stunting. This suggests potential increased risk of malnutrition associated with reductions of household expenditure due to the current global crises.
authors: Helen Keller International, New York, NY 10010, USA. msari@unicef.org
authors: Mayang
authors: M
authors: Sari
authors: Saskia
authors: S
authors: de Pee
authors: Martin W
authors: MW
authors: Bloem
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Sun
authors: Andrew L
authors: AL
authors: Thorne-Lyman
authors: Regina
authors: R
authors: Moench-Pfanner
authors: Nasima
authors: N
authors: Akhter
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Kraemer
authors: Richard D
authors: RD
authors: Semba
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003611:Dairy Products; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005502:Food / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics*; D005638:Fruit; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012307:Risk Factors; D014675:Vegetables