Table 2.

Operational definition and categorisation of the potential confounding variables used in the analysis.

Variables	Definition and Categorisation
Community-level and socio-economic factors
Country	Country of survey (1 = India; 2 = Afghanistan; 3 = Bangladesh; 4 = Bhutan; 5 = Maldives; 6 = Nepal; 7 = Pakistan)
Place of residence	Place of residence of the respondent (1 = urban; and 2 = rural)
Maternal marital status	Marital status of the mother (1 = currently married, and 2 = formerly married)
Maternal educational status	Maternal level of attained education (1 = secondary and above; 2 = completed primary; and 3 = no education)
Fuel used for cooking	Fuel used for cooking at home (1 = biomass energy; and 2 = natural gas).
Source of water used for drinking	Source of water used for drinking at home was classified based on WHO/UNICEF guidelines (1 = improved; and 2 = unimproved).
Sanitation facility	Sanitation referred to the toilet facility at home and was classified based on WHO/UNICEF guidelines (1 = improved; and 2 = unimproved).
Pooled household wealth index	A composite index of household amenities using pooled data and a principal component analysis [23] of household assets that was ranked into quintiles
Maternal and child characteristics
Maternal age at childbirth	Maternal age at childbirth (1 = 20–24 years; 2 = <20 years; and 3 = ≥25 years).
Sex of child	Sex of the child (1 = female; and 2 = male).
Age of child	Age of the child in months (as a continuous variable)
Initiation of breastfeeding	Timing of initiation of breastfeeding (1 = <1 h; 2 = 1 to 24 h; 3 = >24 h; and 4 = never).
Child diarrhea in the last two weeks	The child had diarrhea within two weeks before the interview date (1 = no; and 2 = yes).
Perinatal health services variables
Number of ANC visits	Number of antenatal care visits (1 = no ANC visit; 2 = <4 visits; and 3 = ≥4 visits).

ANC: antenatal care.