Micro-Level estimation of child Malnutrition in Jamaica

Abstract

This document presents village-level estimates of child malnutrition indicators in Jamaica based on small area estimation techniques (Elbers, Lanjouw and Lanjouw (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004) and Fujii (2005)). Our village level estimates of child malnutrition take advantage of the detailed anthropometric data available in the 2002 Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions and the comprehensive coverage of the 2001 Population and Housing Census. Altough we estimate underweight, wasting and stunting indicators of malnutrition, we focus on the latter as a potential targeting instrument for three reasons. First, the incidence of stunting is higher than the incidence of underweight or wasting. Second, height-for-age deficits indicate past or chronic inadequacies of nutrition and/or chronic illness while weight-for-age and weight-for-height deficits are more commonly used to monitor short term changes in malnutrition and screen children at risk. Finally, height-for-age regressions have better fit than the ones for weight-for-age or weight-for-height. We find considerable variation of stunting indicators atat both the parish and contituency-level. Almost half of the contituencies have higher incidence of stunting than the national average and around 10 percent of the contituencies more than double the national incidence. This makes our mapping an interesting alternative for targeting nutritional interventions to those communities that appear to need them the most.micro level, micro levels, estimation, child, malnutrition, nutrition, bolivia, income, total expenditure, malnutrition, povert