Table 3.
Sociodemographic characteristics of study population across categories of stunting
| Overall | Normal height | Stunteda | p | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (%) | 3791 | 2712 | (71.5) | 1079 | (28.5) | ||
| Sex, n (%) | |||||||
| Male | 1870 | (49.3) | 1372 | (50.6) | 498 | (46.2) | |
| Female | 1921 | (50.7) | 1340 | (49.4) | 581 | (53.9) | 0.014 |
| Age, years, mean (s.d.) | 12.6 | (3.9) | 12.2 | (3.8) | 13.6 | (3.7) | <0.001 |
| Ethnicity, n (%) | |||||||
| Malay | 2586 | (68.2) | 1792 | (66.1) | 794 | (73.6) | |
| Indian | 405 | (10.7) | 316 | (11.7) | 89 | (8.3) | |
| Chinese | 694 | (18.3) | 530 | (19.5) | 164 | (15.2) | |
| Bumiputera/Orang Asli | 65 | (1.7) | 43 | (1.6) | 22 | (2.0) | |
| Other | 41 | (1.1) | 31 | (1.1) | 10 | (0.9) | <0.001 |
| BMI-for-age statusa, n (%) | |||||||
| Underweight | 232 | (6.1) | 255 | (9.4) | 134 | (12.4) | |
| Normal | 2460 | (64.9) | 1712 | (63.1) | 736 | (68.2) | |
| Overweight or obese | 1099 | (29.0) | 745 | (27.5) | 209 | (19.4) | <0.001 |
| Birth order, n (%) | |||||||
| 1 | 1604 | (42.3) | 1101 | (40.6) | 503 | (46.6) | |
| 2 | 1150 | (30.3) | 821 | (30.3) | 329 | (30.5) | |
| 3 | 635 | (16.8) | 481 | (17.7) | 154 | (14.3) | |
| 4+ | 402 | (10.6) | 309 | (11.4) | 93 | (8.6) | <0.001 |
| Maternal height (cm) category, n (%) | |||||||
| 160+ | 613 | (16.2) | 462 | (17.0) | 151 | (14.0) | |
| 155–159 | 886 | (23.4) | 663 | (24.5) | 223 | (20.7) | |
| 150–154 | 1204 | (31.8) | 893 | (32.9) | 311 | (28.8) | |
| 145–149 | 758 | (20.0) | 491 | (18.1) | 267 | (24.8) | |
| <145 | 330 | (8.7) | 203 | (7.5) | 127 | (11.8) | <0.001 |
| Maternal current underweight, n (%) | 92 | (2.4) | 69 | (2.5) | 23 | (2.1) | 0.456 |
| Rooms per household member, mean (s.d.) | |||||||
| Bedrooms | 0.6 | (0.3) | 0.6 | (0.3) | 0.6 | (0.3) | 0.582 |
| Bathrooms | 0.4 | (0.2) | 0.4 | (0.2) | 0.4 | (0.2) | 0.785 |
| Living areasb | 0.3 | (0.2) | 0.3 | (0.2) | 0.3 | (0.2) | 0.607 |
| Type of toilet, n (%) | |||||||
| None, bucket or hanging latrine | 10 | (0.3) | 4 | (0.2) | 6 | (0.6) | |
| Bore hole toiletc | 110 | (2.9) | 67 | (2.5) | 43 | (4.0) | |
| Pour flush toilet | 1017 | (26.8) | 706 | (26.0) | 311 | (28.8) | |
| Flush toilet with septic tank | 1548 | (40.8) | 1140 | (42.0) | 408 | (37.8) | |
| Flush toilet connected with sewerage system | 1106 | (29.2) | 795 | (29.3) | 311 | (28.8) | 0.009 |
| Toilet shared with other household, n (%) | 17 | (0.5) | 8 | (0.3) | 9 | (0.8) | 0.025 |
| Main source of drinking water, n (%) | |||||||
| Unprotected sourced | 3 | (0.1) | 1 | (0.0) | 2 | (0.2) | |
| Public standpipe or other protected sourcee | 96 | (2.5) | 57 | (2.1) | 39 | (3.6) | |
| Piped into yard | 133 | (3.5) | 106 | (3.9) | 27 | (2.5) | |
| Piped into house | 3559 | (93.9) | 2548 | (94.0) | 1011 | (93.7) | <0.001 |
| Main method of garbage disposal, n (%) | |||||||
| Buried, burned or thrown | 1042 | (27.5) | 746 | (27.5) | 296 | (27.4) | |
| Collected and thrown for recycling | 250 | (6.6) | 177 | (6.5) | 73 | (6.8) | |
| Collected irregularly by local authority | 133 | (3.5) | 89 | (3.3) | 44 | (4.1) | |
| Collected regularly by local authority | 2366 | (62.4) | 1700 | (62.7) | 666 | (61.7) | 0.665 |
BMI, body mass index.
Descriptive analyses presented for a subset of children with complete information on all sociodemographic variables of interest above (N = 3791), whose data were used for regression analyses (Table 4, Figs 1–3).
Differences in distributions across categories between normal height and stunted were compared using Pearson's χ2 test, or Fisher's exact test for variables with cell frequencies <5.
Stunting and BMI-for-age were classified using the Centers for Disease Control 2000 reference.
Living areas include dining rooms but not kitchens.
Bore hole toilet both with or without cover.
Unprotected sources: unprotected dug well, or water taken directly from pond or stream.
Protected sources: protected dug well or spring, or water from bottles or tanker truck.