Maternal Characteristics Determine Stunting in Children of Less than Five Years of Age Results from a National Probabilistic Survey

Background: Maternal nutrition and some variables are the main determining factors of birthweight and delayed intrauterine growth of children.Objective: To explore the association between the mothers’ biological and sociodemographic characteristics, and the anthropometry status in children under five years of age.Design: The population consisted of a sub-sample of 1,047 mother-and-child selected pairs from the probabilistic National Nutrition Survey, carried out in Mexico. Mother-and-child pairs included mothers aged 12 to 49 years, with children under five years of age. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, obstetric history, 24-hour recall dietary intake, and the women and children’s anthropometry were collected. The association between maternal characteristics and children’s anthropometry status was assessed using multiple logistic regression models.Result: Nearly 16.7% of the children <5y of age were stunted (13.5% ≤2y and 18.8% >2y). The height/age of the children was severely affected by maternal height and birth order. In addition, the interaction between socioeconomic level and maternal schooling had a marginal effect (p = 0.09) in the ≤2y group. On the other hand, whether the family received social services and the interaction between maternal height and a dichotomy urbanism variable were significant ( p = 0.05) and (p <0.01) respectively in >2y group.Conclusion: Some biological and socioeconomic characteristics among mothers have a negative effect on their children’s attained size, especially in the period between 2 and 5 years of age.