Determinants of child malnutrition in Togo: An analysis by disparities according to place of residence
Woulamé OUDJIM
Université de Lomé, Togo
Faculté des Sciences Économiques et de Gestion, Département d’Économie
rogeroudjim123@gmail.com
ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8291-5145
Yacobou SANOUSSI
Université de Lomé, Togo
Faculté des Sciences Économiques et de Gestion, Département d’Économie
syacobou@gmail.com
ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1119-6286
Kodjo EVLO
Université de Lomé, Togo
Faculté des Sciences Économiques et de Gestion, Département d’Économie
kodjo.evlo@gmail.com
ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3398-5032
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to analyze the main determinants likely to influ- ence the nutritional status of children under five years of age in Togo. Logistic regression is used to analyze the effect of socio-economic factors on malnutrition and then a method of decomposition of the factors (Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition) was used to analyze the sources of the gap in the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in urban and rural Togo. The data used came from the MICS survey, 2017. Children residing in rural areas and aged between 6 and 59 months are likely to show stunted. Household wealth and the level of education of mothers are also linked to chronic malnutrition. A child born with a previous
birth interval less than or equal to 2 years has a 59% chance of showing stunting. The results of the decomposition show that the difference in the prevalence of stunting is due to the specific characteristics of its environment. The difference explained in this decomposition is mostly income inequality as measured by the wealth index.
Keywords: malnutrition, Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, disparity, stunting, underweight.
JEL classification : I10, I12, I15, I18.
