Unintended Childbearing and Child Growth in Northern Malawi

Baschieri, Angela, Machiyama, Kazuyo, Floyd, Sian, Dube, Albert, Molesworth, Anna, Chihana, Menard, Glynn, Judith R, Crampin, Amelia C, French, Neil ORCID: 0000-0003-4814-8293 and Cleland, John (2017) Unintended Childbearing and Child Growth in Northern Malawi. MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH JOURNAL, 21 (3). pp. 467-474.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10995-016-2124-8

Abstract

Objective The study aims to assess whether unintended children experience slower growth than intended children. Methods We analysed longitudinal data linked to the Karonga Health and Demographic Surveillance Site collected over three rounds between 2008 and 2011 on women's fertility intentions and anthropometric data of children. Using the prospective information on fertility intention we assessed whether unintended children are more likely to be stunted than intended children. We applied Propensity Score Matching technique to control for endogenous factors affecting both the probability that a family has an unwanted birth and a child with poor health outcomes. Results We found that 24 % of children from unwanted pregnancies were stunted compared with 18 % of mistimed pregnancies and 17 % of those from wanted pregnancies. However, these differences in probability of children being stunted, though in the expected direction, were not significant either for large or small families, after controlling for age. The number of children in the household was associated with stunting and boys were substantially more likely to be stunted than girls. Conclusion We found no significance difference in probability of being stunted by mother's fertility intention.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Fertility intentions, Fertility preference, Fertility, Child nutrition, Child growth, Stunting, Unintended pregnancy, Propensity Score Matching, Malawi, Africa
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Sep 2016 13:45
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:30
DOI:	10.1007/s10995-016-2124-8
Open Access URL:	http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10995-01...
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3003201