Nutritional assessment of pre-school children in rural villages of the family dynamics, lifestyles and nutrition study (1997-2001) I. Socio-economic status of households.
This paper presents the socio-economic profile of households in the Family Dynamics Study (FDS) (1997-2001) and makes comparisons with the earlier Functional Groups Study (FGS) (1992-1996). For the current study, FGS villages with a high prevalence of child malnutrition were purposively selected. In each village selected, all households were included, and interviews with a structured questionnaire were conducted in April-May 1998. Incomes were generally low and incidence of poverty was high; 49.6% of the households were under the poverty line income, of which 37.2% were poor and 12.4% were hard core poor. Overall, only 23.2% of heads of households were in agricultural occupations, others being primarily waged workers and petty traders. Livestock rearing was widespread (57.8%), and most households (90.4%) owned at least one motorised vehicle, the most common being the motorcycle. The majority of households had refrigerators (73.6%), washing machines (58.8%), and televisions (91.1%); but telephones (42.2%), mobile phones (6.1%) and computers (2.3%) were less common. Although 99.7% of households had electricity supply and 95.1% had either a flush or pour flush latrine, only 57.4% had piped water supply. In comparison to the FGS, poverty in the current study is lower (49.6% of FDS households are poor compared to 55.2% of FGS households), the proportion of household heads in agricultural occupations is also lower (26.9% compared to 55.3%), while all other socioeconomic indicators were better, except for piped water supply, which remains inadequate for households in the current study.
Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor.
Heng Leng
HL
Chee
Geoklin
G
Khor
Fatimah
F
Arshad
Wanabdulmanan
W
Wanmuda
Ahmadaffendi
A
Shabdin
Asnarulkhadi
A
Abusamah
Rohani
R
Abdullah
Sitijamilah
S
Bidin
Zahid
Z
Emby
Zamaliah
Z
Mohdmarjan