Economic Factors Associated with Child Malnutrition: A Review of Empirical Literature from 2005 to 2020

ABSTRACT: Malnutrition is a crucial barrier in the goal of achieving economic development due to a lack of effective labor supply through an unhealthier nation. Children are the most adverse group in the malnutrition circle and combatting child malnutrition is an essential requirement to achieve a healthier nation for any country for its economic development through efficient labor supply. Identifying the economic factors of child malnutrition is an important initial step in this process. A plenty of researches have been conducted in the world to identify economic factors affecting child malnutrition but the studies on reviewing those past researches are limited. The objective of this study is to accomplish a review of past empirical literature on economic factors and child malnutrition based on the historical approach. A sample of 40 research papers published from 2005 to 2020 in different kinds of journals was selected for getting reviewed using judgment sampling. Analyzing the data was achieved through the use of descriptive statistics and content analysis. The results found that 68% of journal research articles in the sample have discussed economic factors. Family income, wealth index, and employability were the leading economic factors as found by the literature. The results may be a guide for those who are interesting in the issue and may inform the health sector and other authorities where effective future intervention should be improved to overcome the incidence of child malnutrition.
KEYWORDS: Economic factors ,Empirical literature, Income, Malnutrition, Research article