Abstract

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Malnutrition among women is a long-standing public health concern that hassignificant adverse consequences on the survival and healthy development ofchildren. Maternal mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) could potentially representa simpler alternative to traditional nutritional indicators. This study aimed to investi-gate the factors associated with low maternal MUAC (as an indicator of beingunderweight) and address the research question of whether maternal MUAC issignificantly associated with children's nutritional status among poor and very poorhouseholds in rural Bangladesh. Data on 5,069 households were extracted from theSuchana programme baseline survey, which was carried out in 80 randomly selectedunions (the lowest administrative unit of Bangladesh) in Sylhet and Moulvibazardistricts between November 2016 and February 2017. The outcome variables werethree child nutritional status indicators: wasting, stunting and underweight. Motherswere classified as underweight if their MUAC was less than 23 cm. Separate multiplelogistic regression analyses were used to determine the factors potentially associatedwith maternal underweight status and explore whether maternal underweight statusis significantly associated with children's nutritional status. The prevalence ofmaternal underweight status was 46.7%, and the prevalence of wasting, stunting andunderweight among children under two were 10.5%, 44.4% and 31.9%, respectively.After controlling for various socio-economic and demographic characteristics,maternal MUAC was significantly associated with children's nutritional status in ruralBangladesh.