Overweight Mothers with Stunted Children

A Nutrition Paradox

Abstract

This paper investigates prevalence of stunted child-overweight mother pairs using cross-sectional data (N=89,941) from 17 Low- and Middle-Income Countries. We examine the association of this ‘Double Burden of Malnutrition’ (DBM) with wealth, urbanisation and education. DBM is present in roughly 7% of all households studied. Pooled logistic regressions reveal that the probability a child-mother pair exhibits DBM increases as the mother is older and less educated, the child is older and male, and the household is larger, wealthier and urban. However, 78% of all sample variation in DBM is attributable to unmeasured country-specific factors, possibly including cultural and policy influences.