Peer-reviewed article
Economic and Consumption Variables and Their Associations with Stunting Prevalence: A Provincial Analysis of the Indonesian Child Nutritional Status Survey 2019
Aldiza Intan Randani, Yayuk Farida Baliwati, Dadang Sukandar, Ikeu Tanziha ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed data from 34 Indonesian provinces to identify which economic and food consumption factors are associated with child stunting. Stunting was classified as a serious public health problem in 88% of provinces, with rates of 30% or higher. The researchers found that food expenditure, protein adequacy, and dietary diversity were the strongest factors associated with stunting prevalence. However, no province achieved adequate dietary diversity in 2019, and poverty rates varied significantly between provinces, with concentrations in eastern Indonesia.
Key points
- Stunting remains a serious public health problem in 88.24% of Indonesian provinces with prevalence of 30% or higher
- Food expenditure, protein adequacy level, and Desirable Dietary Pattern score were significantly correlated with stunting prevalence
- No provinces achieved maximum dietary diversity in 2019, indicating inadequate food diversity across all provinces
- Poverty rates were highly diverse between provinces and concentrated in eastern Indonesia
- The final regression model explained 74.06% of variation in stunting prevalence using seven independent variables
Limitations
This is a provincial-level cross-sectional analysis using aggregated secondary data, which cannot establish causal relationships or identify individual risk factors. The authors note that further analysis is needed to understand direct and indirect relationships between economic factors and stunting.
Abstract
The study aims to analyze the relationship between economic and food consumption variables with stunting prevalence among Indonesian children.The unit of analysis for this cross-sectional study was secondary data set from 2019 for 34 provinces obtained from Statistics Indonesia, the Food Security Agency, and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia.In the majority of provinces (88.24%) the stunting prevalence was still categorized as serious public health problem with the prevalence of 30% or higher.The economic outlook in 2019 showed an economic growth, decrease in Gini ratio and the unemployment rate in 34 provinces.However, the poverty rate was very diverse between provinces and concentrated in eastern Indonesia.There were 17 provinces that had higher food than non-food expenditures.There were 31 provinces with normal energy adequacy level and 28 with normal protein adequacy level.However, there was no provinces reached maximum score in Desirable Dietary Pattern (DDP) as the indicator for food diversity, signaling that none of the provinces achieved adequate diversity in food consumption in 2019.The multivariate linear regression with backward elimination technique showed that seven of independent variables were qualified for the final model with R2 of 0.7406.The three variables significantly correlated with stunting prevalence (p<0.05) were food expenditure, protein adequacy level, and DDP score.Hence, these variables can be categorized as causal factors for stunting at provincial level analysis which can feed the food and nutrition policy and its monitoring and evaluation strategy.However, further analysis is needed to determine the direct and indirect relationship between economic factors, food expenditure, and food consumption with the prevalence of stunting among children in Indonesia so that stunting prevention and alleviation programs can be more precise and optimal.