Socio-demographic determinants of vitamin A supplementation in Bangladesh: evidence from two rounds of Bangladesh demographic and health surveys, 2007 and 2011

Manoj Kumar Raut

doi:10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20180775

Authors

Manoj Kumar Raut Research and Evaluation, Nutrition International, Asia Regional Office, New Delhi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20180775

Keywords:

Communication, Counselling, Education, Mass media, Vitamin A supplementation

Abstract

Background: Vitamin A supplementation reduces night blindness, child morbidity and mortality. In Bangladesh, Vitamin A deficiency among children 6-59 months has remained just about stagnant at 20.5 per cent as per the latest Bangladesh National Micronutrient Status Survey 2011-12 declining by a meagre 1.2 per cent from 21.7 per cent in 1997 (IPHN/HKI, 1997). Alarmingly, there is an absolute decline of 24 percentage points in VAS supplementation from 2007 to 2011 according to the Bangladesh Demographic & Health Surveys (BDHS). The current status of vitamin A supplementation raises concern because the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW)’s Health, Population and Nutrition Sector Development Program (HPNSDP) 2011-2016 target of 90 per cent needs to be achieved by 2016.

Methods: This paper tries to explore the socio-demographic causes of receipt of Vitamin A in Bangladesh by analysing the data of the demographic and health surveys for 2007 and 2011 using SAS software. A log binomial regression was conducted to explore the effect of education and exposure to mass media on receipt of vitamin A supplementation.

Results: After adjusting for related socio-economic and demographic factors, parent’s education and among mass media channels, television seems to play an important role in predicting receipt of Vitamin A, (Prevalence Ratio [PR]: 1.0973, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.0499-1.1469) in BDHS 2011. Similarly, also those who watched television were more likely to have received vitamin A (Prevalence Ratio [PR]: 1.0542, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.0304-1.0784).

Conclusions: It can be concluded that mass media seems to be working well in making the mothers aware about the vitamin A campaign, especially, the exposure to television. Though mother’s education was not associated in the 2007 survey, but it was significantly associated with the receipt of vitamin A in the 2011 survey.

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Author Biography

Manoj Kumar Raut, Research and Evaluation, Nutrition International, Asia Regional Office, New Delhi

I have a doctorate degree in Population Studies with a specialization in Bio-statistics and an M.Phil degree in Psychology. I am currently working with Nutrition International formerly known as The Micronutrient Initiative. I have experience of designing, executing monitoring and evaluation plans, preparing budgets, research studies and surveys, analyzing data and imparting training on monitoring & evaluation, data analysis, demographic techniques of analysis and research surveys and studies; both qualitative and quantitative. I have a thorough understanding of national health systems, Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable development goals, Human Development Index and other social sector statistics. I have experience of working with the State statistical system and the key statistics being used at the state/ province/ district and national level. I have more than 15 years of experience of working in different states of India; Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi. I have worked at different levels; from district, state to National and International levels in different capacities. I have experience of data analysis of large scale demographic and health surveys like; India (National Family Health Survey (NFHS, Indian version of the global DHS), District Level Household & Facility Survey (DLHS) and Bangladesh Demographic & Health Survey (DHS). I have experience of working in different sectors; from Research, Monitoring, Evaluations, Data analysis, Safe Motherhood & Child Survival, HIV/AIDS, Micronutrients like; Vitamin A, Iron Folic Acid, Salt Iodization, Double fortified Salt, Vitamin A deficiency, Iodine deficiency and Anaemia. I have been trained in Quantitative advanced statistical data analysis using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) 9.2 organized by the Biostatistics Department, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. I have also been trained in Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) now Predictive Analytic Software for Windows (PASW) / IBM SPSS Statistics for data analysis in Bangkok, Thailand, Asia. Attended a course on Applied methods in cost effectiveness analysis at the Health Economics Research Centre at the Oxford University. The course was quite comprehensive, intensive and hands on with software training in Treeage and advance analysis tool pack add-in in excel spreadsheet. The course contents included the methods of conducting cost-effectiveness analysis, cost utility analysis, calculating Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratios (ICERs), net health benefits and how to make a decision tree and conduct modelling using Treeage software.

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