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Maternal–child overweight/obesity and undernutrition in Kenya: a geographic analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2012

Lisa R Pawloski*
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition and Food Studies (MSN 1F8), George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
Kevin M Curtin
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
Constance Gewa
Affiliation:
Department of Nutrition and Food Studies (MSN 1F8), George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
David Attaway
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Email lpawlosk@gmu.edu
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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of the study was to examine geographic relationships of nutritional status (BMI), including underweight, overweight and obesity, among Kenyan mothers and children.

Design

Spatial relationships were examined concerning BMI of the mothers and BMI-for-age percentiles of their children. These included spatial statistical measures of the clustering of segments of the population, in addition to inspection of co-location of significant clusters.

Setting

Rural and urban areas of Kenya, including the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa, and the Kisumu region.

Subjects

Mother–child pairs from Demographic and Health Survey data including 1541 observations in 2003 and 1592 observations in 2009. These mother–child pairs were organized into 399 locational clusters.

Results

There is extremely strong evidence that high BMI values exhibit strong spatial clustering. There were co-locations of overweight mothers and overweight children only in the Nairobi region, while both underweight mothers and children tended to cluster in rural areas. In Mombasa clusters of overweight mothers were associated with normal-weight children, while in the Kisumu region clusters of overweight children were associated with normal-weight mothers.

Conclusions

These findings show there is geographic variability as well as some defined patterns concerning the distribution of malnutrition among mothers and children in Kenya, and suggest the need for further geographic analyses concerning the potential factors which influence nutritional status in this population. In addition, the methods used in this research may be easily applied to other Demographic and Health Survey data in order to begin to understand the geographic determinants of health in low-income countries.

Information

Type
Epidemiology
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012
Figure 0

Fig. 1Reference map of Kenya and its major cities

Figure 1

Fig. 2Getis–Ord Z-scores showing clustering of high BMI and BMI-for-age percentile values among mother–child pairs (n 1541), data from the Kenya 2003 Demographic and Health Survey (—⧫—, Z-score of mothers; —●—, Z-score of children; – – –, 0·10 significance level; – · – · –, 0·05 significance level; ——, 0·01 significance level)

Figure 2

Fig. 3Local Getis–Ord Gi* values for clustering of mothers’ BMI (n 1541), data from the Kenya 2003 Demographic and Health Survey

Figure 3

Fig. 4Local Getis–Ord Gi* values for clustering of children's BMI-for-age percentile values (n 1541), data from the Kenya 2003 Demographic and Health Survey

Figure 4

Table 1Nine classifications for mothers’ BMI and children's BMI-for-age percentile values (n 1541), data from the Kenya 2003 Demographic and Health Survey