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. 2020 Jan 20;20(1):83.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8164-4.

Trends in burden and risk factors associated with childhood stunting in Rwanda from 2000 to 2015: policy and program implications

Agnes Binagwaho  1   2   3 , Alphonse Rukundo  4 , Samuel Powers  5   6 , Kateri B Donahoe  5 , Mawuena Agbonyitor  7 , Fidel Ngabo  8 , Corine Karema  5 , Kirstin Woody Scott  9 , Mary C Smith Fawzi  9
Affiliations

Trends in burden and risk factors associated with childhood stunting in Rwanda from 2000 to 2015: policy and program implications

Agnes Binagwaho et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Rwanda has made substantial economic progress over the past two decades. However, evidence suggests that malnutrition among children remains high in spite of this progress. This study aims to examine trends and potential risk factors associated with childhood stunting from 2000 to 2015 in Rwanda.

Methods: Data for this study come from the 2000 to 2015 Rwanda's Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), a cross-sectional, population-based survey that is conducted every 5 years. Following prior work, we define stunting based on age and weight as reported in the DHS. We assess the overall prevalence of stunting among children under the age of 5 in Rwanda and then conduct bivariate analyses across a range of policy-relevant demographic, socioeconomic, and health variables. We then incorporate key variables in a multivariable analysis to identify those factors that are independently associated with stunting.

Results: The prevalence of stunting among children under the age of 5 in Rwanda declined from 2000 (47.4%) to 2015 (38.3%), though rates were relatively stagnant between 2000 and 2010. Factors associated with higher rates of stunting included living in the lowest wealth quintile, having a mother with limited education, having a mother that smoked, being of the male sex, and being of low-birth weight.

Conclusions: Though overall stunting rates have improved nationally, these gains have been uneven. Furthering ongoing national policies to address these disparities while also working to reduce the overall risk of malnutrition will be necessary for Rwanda to reach its overall economic and health equity goals.

Keywords: Children; Global health; Malnutrition; Rwanda; Stunting.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trends in Prevalence of Childhood Stunting in Rwanda, by Wealth Quintile. Notes: Rwanda’s Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2010 and DHS 2015 rely on the 2006 WHO standards whereas DHS 2000 & 2005 do not. For consistency, all of our calculations were conducted according to the 2006 standards. As such, our calculations use a different definition of malnutrition in 2000 and 2005 than the DHS publications do for those years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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