title: Mother's body mass index as a predictor of infant's nutritional status in the post-emergency phase of a flood.
abstract: Maternal nutritional status is a determinant of child health. This paper studies the association between a mother's body mass index (BMI) and her infant's nutritional status over a one year time frame after the 1998 flood crisis in Bangladesh. The paper uses secondary analysis of data collected from 757 households in seven rural areas of Bangladesh affected by the 1998 flood using multiple-stage probability sampling techniques (n = 143). Logistic regression models were employed to investigate the predictive impact of maternal BMI on infant's nutritional status after controlling for a range of child and maternal factors. An underweight mother was a significant factor with regard to the risk of infants suffering stunting (odds ratio (OR) = 4.45, 95 per cent confidence interval (CI) = 1.04-18.94) and being underweight (OR = 3.51, 95 per cent CI = 1.02-12.05) a year later, but not wasting (OR = 2.09, 95 per cent CI = 0.51-8.67). The findings suggest that there is a post-emergency link between maternal and infant nutritional health.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Global Health and Human Development, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, United Kingdom. S.Goudet@lboro.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goudet
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Griffths
authors.forename: Barry A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Bogin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004189:Disaster Planning; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D055868:Floods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007229:Infant Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D039382:Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008429:Maternal Welfare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult