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Malnutrition in the OIC Member
Countries: A Trap for Poverty
COMCEC
Table 10: Estimations of the Effects on Children Malnutrition of LowBirth Weight and
Malnutrition of their Mothers, Egypt
(
1
)
(
2
)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(
6
)
Wasting Wasting Stunting Stunting Overweight Overweight
Mother is
1 . 00
0.98
1.62*** 1.56***
0.75*
0.78
stunted
(0.19)
(
0
.
2 0
)
(0.18)
(0.18)
(
0
.
1 2
)
(0.13)
Low birth
1.42***
1
4 7
***
1 64***
1
5 7
***
1.26**
1
.
2 2
*
weight
(0.19)
(
0
.
2 0
)
(0.14)
(0.14)
(0.13)
(0.13)
Age child
1 . 00
1 . 00
1 . 00
1. 00
0
9 9
***
0.99**
(
0
.
0 0
)
(
0
.
0 0
)
(
0
.
0 0
)
(
0
.
0 0
)
(
0
.
0 0
)
(
0
.
0 0
)
Girl
0.81**
0.83*
0.78*** 0.80***
0.91
0.92
(0.08)
(0.09)
(0.05)
(0.05)
(0.07)
(0.07)
Controls
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Observations
6106
5757
6106
5757
6106
5757
Note: authors' calculations based on the EDHS (2014) data. Coefficients are odds ratios andfigures in parentheses
refer to standard errors. *: p<0.1, **: p<0.05, ***: p<0.001.
One can see that children are not more likely to be wasted when their mothers are short.
However, low birth weight is positively associated with wasting (children who were small at
birth are almost 50% more likely to be wasted at the time of survey, column 2). The pattern of
intergenerational transmission is even stronger for stunting. Children whose mothers are
short are about 60% more likely to be stunted; and children who were small at birth are 57%
more likely to be stunted than other children. Like for wasting, the results remain remarkably
consistent with and without controls. The pattern of transmission of malnutrition when one
looks at over-nutrition is more complex. On the one hand, children whose mothers are short
tend to be less likely to be overweight than others (but the effect is imprecisely estimated). On
the other hand, children who were small at birth are more likely to be overweight (by 22-26%)
than children who were not small.
Malnutrition and Poverty in the National Development Strategy
Egypt has a 10-year Food and Nutrition Policy and Strategy (2007 - 2017) with 12 policy
areas, which are considered to be comprehensive. These 12 policy areas are (based on
Landscape Analysis 2013):
1. Promotion of inter-sectoral collaboration that lead to Universal Access to adequate food
and nutrition
2. Incorporation of Nutrition Objectives (which fall under the policy areas) into National
Development Policies, Plans, Strategies, Programmes, or activities to achieve Millennium
Development Goals
3. Improving Household Food Security
4. Monitoring the food and nutrition situation
5. Improving the Quality and Safety of Food related Services to protect consumer health
6
. Prevention and Control of Nutrition infectious diseases
7. Caring for the socio-economically deprived and nutritionally vulnerable
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