Skip to main content

Table 1 Background characteristics of children with working and not-working mothers in study sample

From: Association between mother’s work status and child stunting in urban slums: a cross-sectional assessment of 346 child-mother dyads in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2020)

Background factors

N*

Not-working (n = 290)

Working (n = 54)

P-value**

Household

 HH slum location (%)

  Korail (Dhaka North)

344

51.38

33.33

0.015

  Tongi (Gazipur)

48.62

66.67

 HH migratory status (%)

  Migrant

328

59.21

70.59

0.126

 HH wealth quintile (1-5), mean ± SD

317

2.94 ± 1.42

3.25 ± 1.36

0.131

 Monthly income (BDT, quartiles)(%)

  1 (2000-15,000 BDT)

328

40.36

26.42

0.036

  2 (16000-20,000 BDT)

25.45

32.08

  3 (21000-25,000 BDT)

13.45

26.42

  4(27000-110,000 BDT)

20.73

15.09

 Household size, mean ± SD

344

4.92 ± 2.04

4.74 ± 1.47

0.432

 Main source of cooking fuel (%)

  Solid fuels

343

13.84

22.22

0.267

 HH has separate kitchen (%)

341

40.63

43.40

0.706

 Handwashing place observed at home (%)

344

80.00

83.33

0.570

 Main drinking water source (%)

  Improved type

344

100.00

100.00

 Water unavailable from source for at least 1 full day (in last 2 weeks) (%)

344

26.66

14.81

0.066

 Treat water at home to make safer to drink (%)

344

30.34

20.37

0.137

 Store drinking water at home (%)

343

60.21

38.89

0.004

 Toilet type (%)

  Improved type

343

100.00

98.15

0.021

 Toilet is shared with other households (%)

343

66.90

64.15

0.697

 Shared toilet type (base: shared toilet) (%)

  Public facility

229

18.04

37.14

0.011

 Distance to nearest public/ NGO health facility (within 1 km) (%)

335

85.87

94.23

0.097

 HH received nutrition IEC/service before survey (%)

336

38.65

55.56

0.021

Child

 Sex (%)

  Female

344

47.93

42.59

0.471

 Age (months), mean ± SD

344

27.81 ± 16.33

34.37 ± 15.11

0.004

 Birth order, mean ± SD

340

1.84 ± 0.92

2.19 ± 1.08

0.029

 Place of birth (%)

  Home

342

41.18

41.51

0.619

 Mother worked during pregnancy (%)

342

15.63

51.85

< 0.001

 Birthweight (in kg, both card and recall), mean ± SD

229

3.04 ± 0.74

2.83 ± 0.53

0.045

 Birth registered (%)

343

39.45

59.26

0.007

 Fully vaccinateda (%)

344

54.83

29.63

0.001

Mother

 Age (years), mean ± SD

341

26.01 ± 5.64

29.43 ± 5.58

< 0.001

 Educational attainment (class completed), mean ± SD

340

5.75 ± 3.53

4.47 ± 3.17

0.009

 Literacy (%)

  Cannot read at all

343

20.07

27.78

< 0.001

  Can partly read

17.65

37.04

  Can fully read

62.28

35.19

 Media exposure (%)

  At least once weekly (to newspaper/radio/TV)

343

84.43

92.59

0.116

 Marital status (%)

  Married

344

98.28

100.00

0.331

 Children ever born, mean ± SD

341

1.95 ± 0.92

2.26 ± 1.12

0.057

 Wants no more children (%)

343

46.02

70.37

0.004

 Currently using contraceptive (%)

342

81.94

88.89

0.212

 BMIb (%)

  Underweight

334

6.79

11.11

0.242

  Overweight

41.07

48.15

 Stature (%)

  Very short < 145 cm

344

14.83

22.22

0.316

  Short: 145 to < 155 cm

70.69

61.11

  Normal: ≥155

14.48

16.67

 Primary caregiver of child is mother (%)

343

99.66

98.11

0.175

 Secondary caregivers other than mother (%)

  Older sibling/father/relative only

325

34.06

40.82

0.037

  Grandmother only

20.65

28.57

  No one else

34.78

14.29

  Multiple people

10.51

16.33

Father (mother’s husband)

 Age (years), mean ± SD

339

32.54 ± 6.84

35.44 ± 6.51

0.003

 Educational attainment (class completed), mean ± SD

337

6.28 ± 3.88

5.33 ± 4.04

0.115

 Employment status (%)

  Currently working

341

98.61

100.00

0.683

  1. HH household, BMI body mass index, SD standard deviation, IEC information education communication
  2. *2 observations with missing maternal work exposure were excluded
  3. **indicates statistical significance level between currently working and non-working mothers
  4. aA child is considered ‘fully vaccinated’ in Bangladesh if following vaccines were received: 1 dose of BCG, 3 doses of pentavalent, 3 doses of OPV or at least one dose of IPV, and 1 dose of MCV; children 8 months or younger were coded as ‘fully vaccinated’ as the last vaccine is typically received only after 9 months of age
  5. bExcludes pregnant women