Maternal nutritional status

In Peru, height and weight of women have increased over time, partially driven by improved maternal nutritional status.

Literature Review

Existing literature suggests strongly that a mother’s nutritional status can have an intergenerational impact on to her child, resulting in adverse outcomes for the child if the mother has experienced undernutrition.^{1 2}

Quantitative Analysis

According to the linear mixed effects regression, neither maternal BMI nor height was found to be significantly associated with stunting prevalence.

However, maternal BMI and height were strong predictors of change in HAZ based on the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, contributing more than 20 percent to the total HAZ-score change. Across all age groups and time periods, maternal nutritional status was either the top or second-greatest predictor of change in HAZ-score. In all cases, the majority of the contribution came from height, not BMI.

Qualitative Analysis

Not mentioned specifically.

Conclusion

While maternal nutritional status and growth were not found to be significant at the region level according to the linear mixed effects regression, it was one of the most important drivers of increase in HAZ-score according to the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. This latter view is supported by existing literature as well as a clear biological pathway. On balance, it is likely that maternal nutritional status and growth, height in particular, contributed strongly toward a decrease in stunting prevalence.

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