Economic and Socio-Demographic Determinants of Child Nutritional Status in Egypt

This paper examines the underlying economic and socio-demographic determinants of childnutritional status in Egypt using data from the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey. TheHeight for Age Z-score (HAZ) is used as a measurement of child growth assessment. Wecontribute to the extant literature by using a quantile regression model to allow for aheterogeneous effect of each determinant along different percentiles of the conditionaldistribution of the HAZ score. We use a nationally representative sample of 13,682 children aged0–4 years, for which we observe their health measures. The multivariate analyses include a set ofHAZ determinants that are widely used in the literature. The conditional and unconditionalanalyses reveal a socioeconomic gradient in child nutritional status, in which children of lowincome-education families have lower HAZ than children from the high income-educationhouseholds. We also find significant disparities in child nutritional status by demographic andsocial characteristics. The quantile regression results show that the association between theeconomic and socio-demographic factors and the HAZ differ along the conditional HAZdistribution. Intervention measures need to take into account the heterogeneous effect of thedeterminants of child nutritional status along the different percentiles of the HAZ distribution.There is no one-size-fits-all policy to combat child malnutrition; a multifaceted approach wouldbe required to address this problem effectively.