Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in a Very Poor Population of Residents and Migrants from Bangladesh in Calcutta, India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6136043
AutoresStanley J Ulijaszek (University of Cambridge), Stanley Ulijaszek (0000-0001-6593-1103, Curtin University), Daniel Leighton (0000-0002-1379-0078, University of Cambridge)
Año1998
Volumen106
Número3
Páginas253-263
Fecha de publicación1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0918-7960 • E-ISSN: 1348-8570
EditorialAnthropological Society of Nippon (PUBLISHER • JP)
DOI10.1537/ase.106.253
OpenAlexW1965997951
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas8

Investigations of the effects of maternal employment on child nutrition in poor populations have have shown that children below the age of 1 year suffer nutritionally from having an employed mother, while older children benefit. This study examines this possibility in a very poor population in Calcutta, India. Z scores of height for age (H/A), weight for age (W/A) and weight for height (W/H) relative to NCHS references were calculated from cross-sectional anthropometric measurements made on 166 mother-child pairs, and related to maternal nutritional and occupational status/and child feeding practices. Z scores of H/A show a decline relative to National Center for Health Statistics references across age groups regardless of maternal employment status. However, children with employed mothers have significantly higher H/A but not W/H, while breastfed children have higher W/H regardless of their age. Although employed women are heavier and have a higher mean BMI than women who do not work for income, there is no relationship between maternal size and nutritional status, and between the stature and nutritional status of the child. The greater stature of the offspring of employed women may be due greater long-term food availability to the families of such women, but this conjecture remains untested. The stage of feeding effect, in which breastfeeding infants are heavier for stature than those receiving supplements or having been weaned altogether, is independent of maternal nutritional status. Very young children do not suffer nutritionally as a consequence of maternal employment, relative to older children. This may be in part a function of the availability of free dietary supplements from the Jack Preger clinic, but also of employment patterns which are predominantly informal and part-time, and which allow mothers to persist in breastfeeding even while working

Anthropometry · Biology · Breastfeeding · Environmental health · Offspring · Population · Pregnancy · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Medicine · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Pediatrics