Table 5.

Multilevel linear regression estimates of the effects of socioeconomic and environmental factors on weight-for-age z-score

	Model 1		Model 2		Model 3		Model 4		Model 5		Model 6		Model 7
	1991	1998	1991	1998	1991	1998	1991	1998	1991	1998	1991	1998	1991	1998
Household Economic status
1st quintile (reference)
2nd quintile	0.184	0.174	0.191	0.140			0.252**	0.199**	0.232*	0.222**			0.233*	0.215**
3rd quintile	-0.125	0.129	-0.116	0.121			0.026	0.152	0.003	0.176*			0.006	0.180*
4th quintile	0.194	0.349**	0.181	0.334**			0.160	0.359***	0.071	0.394***			0.064	0.400***
5th quintile	0.320**	0.647***	0.272*	0.638***			0.248*	0.576***	0.049	0.575***			0.028	0.594***
Continuous	0.185**	0.290***	0.162**	0.288***			0.104*	0.246***	0.013	0.227***			0.008	0.227**
Maternal health-seeking behavior
1st quintile (reference)
2nd quintile	0.352**	0.227**	0.297**	0.047			0.120	-0.050	0.121	-0.038			0.125	-0.071
3rd quintile	0.438**	0.241**	0.349**	-0.087			0.230*	-0.076	0.236*	-0.071			0.229*	-0.143
4th quintile	0.455**	0.331**	0.293*	-0.074			0.203	0.023	0.187	0.036			0.173	-0.059
5th quintile	0.647***	0.359**	0.440**	-0.152			0.355**	0.047	0.308**	0.036			0.279*	-0.079
Continuous	0.193***	0.128**	0.125**	-0.426			0.137**	0.043	0.110**	0.042			0.112**	0.004
Household environment
Water
Poor (reference)
Medium					0.167	0.157*			0.040	-0.046			0.006	-0.030
Good					0.470***	0.209*			0.278**	-0.034			0.234**	-0.023
Sanitation
Poor (reference)
Medium					0.031	0.361**			-0.098	0.212			-0.147	0.195
Good					0.093	0.088			0.052	-0.117			0.042	-0.113
Cooking fuel
Poor (reference)
Good					0.312**	0.240**			0.218**	0.091			0.188	0.087
Maternal education
No education (reference)
Primary			0.262**	0.595***							0.133	0.300**	0.055	0.287**
Secondary or +			0.399**	0.732***							0.213*	0.406***	0.091	0.319**
Maternal age at birth (yrs)
<20 (reference)
20–29							0.032	0.079	0.026	0.084	0.019	0.104	0.026	0.094
30–49							0.017	0.142	0.016	0.135	0.011	0.186*	0.020	0.160
Maternal marital status
Married monogamy							0.182**	0.038	0.175**	0.028	0.186**	0.016	0.234**	0.022
Other (reference)
Child sex
Male							-0.074	-0.209***	-0.067	-0.208***	-0.072	-0.206***	-0.070	-0.207***
Female (reference)
Child age (months)
0–5 (reference)
6–11							-1.121***	-1.222***	-1.124***	-1.237***	-1.114***	-1.210***	-1.126***	-.1.237***
12–23							-1.756***	-1.965***	-1.742***	-1.982***	-1.730***	-1.949***	-1.741***	-1.966***
24–35							-1.646***	-1.899***	-1.637***	-1.913***	-1.617***	-1.869***	-1.637***	-1.895***
Birth size
Small (reference)
Average							0.359***	0.188**	0.358***	0.178**	0.379***	0.180**	0.367***	0.175**
Large							0.797***	0.514***	0.796***	0.505***	0.814***	0.497***	0.799***	0.493***
Breastfeeding duration
Never breastfed							-0.240	-0.205	-0.232	-0.110	-0.186	-0.207	-0.209	-0.102
Still breastfeeding							-0.559**	-0.190	-0.490**	-0.128	-0.512**	-0.192	-0.466**	-0.104
Breastfed 0–4 months							-0.067	0.460	-0.036	0.428	-0.035	0.452	-0.020	0.438
Breastfed 5–6 months (reference)
Breastfed 7–18 months							-0.243	0.232	-0.196	0.288	-0.227	0.208	-0.180	0.297
Breastfed 19 months or more							-0.534**	0.054	-0.465**	0.119	-0.503**	0.061	-0.435*	0.152
Preceding birth interval
First born child							-0.002	0.023	-0.008	0.034	-0.029	0.005	-0.009	0.0250
7–18 months							-0.088	-0.248*	-0.102	-0.233*	-0.099	-0.279**	-0.102	-0.248*
19–23 months							-0.182	-0.864	-0.161	-0.089	-0.164	-0.089	-0.158	-0.096
24 months or more (reference)
Place of residence
Yaounde/Douala											0.373**	0.366**	0.298	0.337*
Intermediate cities											-0.140	0.001	-0.162	-0.060
Rural
Region
West/Littoral							0.686***	0.778***	0.663***	0.791***	0.601***	0.533***	0.575***	0.618***
North-West/South-West							0.599***	0.808***	0.605***	0.831***	0.574***	0.558***	0.520***	0.657***
Center/South/East							0.308**	0.356**	0.276**	0.362***	0.211	0.091	0.186	0.177
Adamaoua/North/Far-North (reference)
Community environmental index											0.117**	0.078**	0.074*	0.003
Log-Likelihood	-5729.851		-5705.574		-5739.404		-5198.523		-5183.880		-5205.653		-5177.527
Number of children	3321		3321		3321		3321		3321		3321		3321
Number of clusters	350		350		350		350		350		350		350
Random-effects parameters
Between-individual variance (95 CI)	1.749 (1.663–1.841)		1.745 (1.659–1.836)		1.740 (1.654–1.830)		1.30 (1.232–1.363)		1.285 (1.221–1.352)		1.300 (1.236–1.367)		1.281 (1.218–1.348)
Between-cluster variance (95 CI)	0.132 (0.089–0.196)		0.095 (0.059–0.153)		0.172 (0.124–0.239)		0.054 (0.031–0.097)		0.053 (0.030–0.097)		0.0572 (0.033–0.099)		0.052 (0.028–0.094)

Notes: -Each model (except for models 3 and 6) was estimated twice; for the first estimation, economic status and maternal health-seeking behavior were included as continuous variables, all other variables remaining unchanged, and for the second estimation, the quintiles of these variables were included; the table reports coefficients on other variables for the second estimation. A dummy indicator for missing values was also included for each variable with missing values. CI denotes confidence interval.

-Statistical significance: *: P < 0.10; **: p < 0.05; ***: p < 0.001