Economic Determinants of Malnutrition among School Children in Sri Lanka: With special reference to Nuwara-Eliya district

ABSTRACT: Better health is extremely associated with proper nutritional intake. Malnutrition amongchildren is closely associated with their individual health, brain development, future labor productivity andfinally with the social and economic development. Child malnutrition is lasting as one of the serious issuesaffecting economic development in Sri Lanka. Therefore, identifying the prevalence and the determinants ofchild malnutrition is essential in the first stage of exploring the phenomena of child malnutrition. Many factorsdetermine child malnutrition. Among these, economic determinants are crucial. The objective of this study is toinvestigate the economic determinants of malnutrition among school children in Sri Lanka based on theNuwara-Eliya district. The study used primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. The stratifiedrandom sampling technique was employed to draw the sample of 378 school children. The main analysistechnique was logistic regression. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, t-test and chi-squaretest were applied as supplementary techniques. The logistic regression model disclosed a significant impact ofincome, poverty and mother’s employment on child malnutrition. The odds ratio between income and childmalnutrition shows a negative effect. The probability of being malnourished for the poor is higher than for thenon-poor. The highest malnutrition is recorded for the children of mothers employed in the private sector. Thestudy suggests implementing supportive strategies to increase the income of households, alleviate poverty andintroduce proper mechanisms to take care of children of employed mothers to reduce child malnutrition.

KEYWORDS: Economic determinants, Income, Logistic regression, Malnutrition, School children