UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Community Participation and Multidimensional Child Growth: Evidence from the Vietnam Young Lives Study

Martinez, RG; Wells, J; Anand, P; Pelto, G; Dhansay, MA; Haisma, H; (2022) Community Participation and Multidimensional Child Growth: Evidence from the Vietnam Young Lives Study. Current Developments in Nutrition , 6 (4) , Article nzac022. 10.1093/cdn/nzac022. Green open access

[thumbnail of nzac022.pdf]
Preview
Text
nzac022.pdf - Published Version

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGOUND: Community participation has the potential to improve the effects of interventions and reduce inequalities in child growth. Multidimensional indicators capture such effects and inequalities. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to measure the association between multidimensional child growth and community participation in 2 nutrition-sensitive interventions. METHODS: A Multidimensional Index of Child Growth was calculated with the 5-y-old cohort of the Vietnam Young Lives Survey. Young Lives is a unique dataset that has information on community participation in the design and implementation stages of 2 interventions: a health and a water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) intervention. Community participation during the interventions was recorded retrospectively with interviews at the household level. Ordinary least-squares and quantile regressions were estimated using data on 240 children. A Multidimensional Index of Child Advantage, sex, and location (urban/rural) were included as control covariates. RESULTS: A positive association (post hoc statistical power = 0.859) was estimated for community participation during the design stage of the WASH intervention, particularly for the most deprived children (P < 0.05). Negative effects were estimated for the health intervention during the design stage (P < 0.05) and no significant effects were found for community participation during the implementation stage of the interventions. Instead of the physical dimension, the significant associations in the design stage were related to the nonphysical dimension of child growth. Inequalities in multidimensional growth were found for children living in rural areas, but not for girls. CONCLUSIONS: The association between community participation and multidimensional child growth is indicative of the importance of community participation during the design phase of interventions, in particular for the nonphysical dimensions of child growth related to social and psychological factors. The benefits of participation were greater for urban children compared with rural children, which deserves further attention.

Type: Article
Title: Community Participation and Multidimensional Child Growth: Evidence from the Vietnam Young Lives Study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/cdn/nzac022
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzac022
Language: English
Additional information: © 2022 Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Keywords: multidimensional child growth, community participation, capability approach, Young Lives Survey, nutrition
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153985
Downloads since deposit
15Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item