Table 1.

List of variables included in the risk factor analysis

	Definition
Child characteristics
Age (months)	6–11, 12–17, or 18–23
Sex	Female or male
Birth order	Firstborn, second to fourth born, or fifth or higher
Birth interval (month)	No previous birth, <24, or ≥24
Perceived birth weight	Size of child as reported subjectively by the respondent and categorized into smaller than average, average, and larger than average
Vitamin A supplementation	Yes or no, for receiving supplementation in the past 6 months (NDHS 2006 and 2011) or in the past day (NDHS 2014)
Complete age‐appropriate vaccination	Whether or not receiving sufficient doses of BCG, DPT, polio and measles vaccine at proper age per WHO immunization guidelines (World Health Organization). Categorized as none, some, or complete
Child health
Diarrhoea	Yes or no for any reported diarrhoea in the past 2 weeks
Fever	Yes or no for any reported fever in the past 2 weeks
Cough	Yes or no for any reported cough in the past 2 weeks
Maternal characteristics
Age (years)	15–24, 25–34, or 35–49
BMI (kg/m2)	<18.5, 18.5–24.9, or ≥25
Smoker	Yes or no for current smoking
Utilization of reproductive health care
Place of delivery	Health facility or other
Type of delivery assistance	Delivered by health professional, traditional birth attendant, or other
Caesarean delivery	Yes or no
Number of antenatal clinic visits	None, 1–3, or ≥4
Timing of postnatal check‐up on woman (days)	0–1, ≥2, or missing/unknown
Timing of postnatal check‐up on child (days)	0–1, ≥2, or missing/unknown
Education	No education, primary, or secondary/higher
Exposure to media
Reading newspaper	Read at least once a week or less often
Listening to radio	Listened at least once a week or less often
Watching TV	Watched at least once a week or less often
Involved in decision‐making on
How man's income is used	Yes or no
Large household purchases	Yes or no
Visiting family and friends	Yes or no
Regarding own health care	Yes or no
Attitude toward domestic violence: Beating justified if
Goes out without telling him	Yes or no
Neglects the children	Yes or no
Argues with him	Yes or no
Refuses to have sex with him	Yes or no
Burns the food	Yes or no
Overall attitude toward domestic violence	High if all five above reported as no, or low if at least one above reported as yes
Women's empowerment score	Total number of “yes” of questions under decision making domain, plus 1 if “high” or plus 0 if “low” in overall attitude toward domestic violence
Sociocultural groups	Brahmin/Chhetri, Janajati, Dalit, or other, according to (Bennett et al., 2008)
Paternal characteristics
Age (years)	15–24, 25–34, or ≥35
Education	No education, primary, or secondary/higher
Occupation	Categorized into not working, agricultural and non‐agricultural
Household characteristics
Sex of household head	Female or male
No. of household members	Total number of people living in the same household
No. of children under 5 years	Total number of children under 5 years living in the same household
Types of cooking fuel	Efficient (electricity, LPG, natural gas, and biogas) or non‐efficient fuels (wood, straw/shrubs/grass, animal dung, and other)
Water characteristics
Source of drinking water	Improved or unimproved according to (World Health Organization & UNICEF, 2006)
Location of drinking water	In own dwelling/yard/plot or elsewhere
Time to get to water source (min)	0, 1–59, or ≥60
Toilet characteristics
Types of toilet facility	Improved or unimproved according to (World Health Organization & UNICEF, 2006)
Shared toilet with other households	Yes or no
Household wealth	Categorized into quintiles
Community characteristics
Place of residence	Rural or urban
Development region	Eastern, Central, Western, Mid‐Western, or Far‐Western
Ecological zone	Terai, hill, or mountain
Overall maternal education	Proportion of women within community completed primary or higher education
Overall women's empowerment	Mean women's empowerment score within community
Overall toilet condition	Proportion of households within community using unimproved toilets
Overall shared toilet	Proportion of households within community using shared toilets
Access to health care
Overall child vaccination status	Proportion of children 0–5 years within community with age‐appropriate vaccination
Overall facility delivery	Proportion of women within community who gave birth to their youngest child 0–5 years at health facilities
Overall health professional delivery	Proportion of women within community who have given birth to their youngest child 0–5 years assisted by health professionals
Overall caesarean delivery	Proportion of women within community who have given birth to their youngest child 0–5 years by caesarean delivery
Overall utility of antenatal clinic visits	Proportion of women within community who had at least four antenatal clinic visits prior to the birth of their youngest child 0–5 years
Overall timing of postnatal check‐up on women	Proportion of women within community who had their postnatal check‐up done within 1 day after delivery of their youngest child 0–5 years
Overall timing of postnatal check‐up on children	Proportion of youngest children 0–5 years within community who had their postnatal check‐up done within 1 day after delivery
Overall child vitamin A supplementation	Proportion of youngest children 0–5 years within community received vitamin A in the past 6 months
Overall child iron supplementation	Proportion of youngest children 0–5 years within community received iron pills, sprinkles or syrup in the past 7 days
Overall maternal iron supplementation	Proportion of women within community given or who bought iron tablets during pregnancy of their youngest children 0–5 years
Rank of access to health care	The summed rank of all community‐level indicators was created as the composite index of overall access to health care. The summed rank was categorized into quintiles.

Note. NDHS = Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys; BCG = bacille Calmette‐Guerin; DPT = diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis; BMI = body mass index.