Nearly half of all deaths among children under five years of age across the globe results from under nutrition. This study examines the effect of maternal employment on child nutritional status in Cameroon using secondary data from the 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS). We used a weighted sample of 4497 children U5 years born to women age 15–49. The Chi-squared tests and The Heckman selection model were used to examine the effects while controlling for other explanatory factors. Our results show that maternal employment has a significant (p<0.1) negative effect on child nutritional status in Cameroon. Children of employed mothers are at a higher risk and more likely to be stunted (0.3%) wasted (1.7%) or underweight (3.1%) compared to children whose mothers are unemployed. Particularly, mother’s occupation in agriculture has negative effect on child nutritional status; this has a negative and significant effect of 4.5% on underweight and negative and significant effect of 8.8% on stunting. Full-time maternal work increases stunting by 1%; wasting by 0.2% and underweight by 1.1% even though not-significant (p>0.1). On the basis of these findings, we suggest that interventions aimed at improving children’s nutrition should promote breastfeeding in work places and flexible working conditions that can permit nursing mothers to maintain close contacts with their children even during working time.
| Published in | Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 9, Issue 6) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13 |
| Page(s) | 172-181 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Maternal Employment, Child Nutritional Status, Heckman Selection Model, Cameroon
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APA Style
Alfred Fang, Y., Akono Christian, Z., Tchoumdop Michèle Estelle, N., Ousseni, M. (2023). Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in Cameroon: An Investigation Using the Heckman Selection Model. Central African Journal of Public Health, 9(6), 172-181. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13
ACS Style
Alfred Fang, Y.; Akono Christian, Z.; Tchoumdop Michèle Estelle, N.; Ousseni, M. Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in Cameroon: An Investigation Using the Heckman Selection Model. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2023, 9(6), 172-181. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13
AMA Style
Alfred Fang Y, Akono Christian Z, Tchoumdop Michèle Estelle N, Ousseni M. Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in Cameroon: An Investigation Using the Heckman Selection Model. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2023;9(6):172-181. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13
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Download@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13,
author = {Yong Alfred Fang and Zamo Akono Christian and Ndonou Tchoumdop Michèle Estelle and Mongbet Ousseni},
title = {Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in Cameroon: An Investigation Using the Heckman Selection Model},
journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
volume = {9},
number = {6},
pages = {172-181},
doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20230906.13},
abstract = {Nearly half of all deaths among children under five years of age across the globe results from under nutrition. This study examines the effect of maternal employment on child nutritional status in Cameroon using secondary data from the 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS). We used a weighted sample of 4497 children U5 years born to women age 15–49. The Chi-squared tests and The Heckman selection model were used to examine the effects while controlling for other explanatory factors. Our results show that maternal employment has a significant (p0.1). On the basis of these findings, we suggest that interventions aimed at improving children’s nutrition should promote breastfeeding in work places and flexible working conditions that can permit nursing mothers to maintain close contacts with their children even during working time.
},
year = {2023}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Maternal Employment and Child Nutritional Status in Cameroon: An Investigation Using the Heckman Selection Model AU - Yong Alfred Fang AU - Zamo Akono Christian AU - Ndonou Tchoumdop Michèle Estelle AU - Mongbet Ousseni Y1 - 2023/12/22 PY - 2023 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13 DO - 10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13 T2 - Central African Journal of Public Health JF - Central African Journal of Public Health JO - Central African Journal of Public Health SP - 172 EP - 181 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-5781 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20230906.13 AB - Nearly half of all deaths among children under five years of age across the globe results from under nutrition. This study examines the effect of maternal employment on child nutritional status in Cameroon using secondary data from the 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS). We used a weighted sample of 4497 children U5 years born to women age 15–49. The Chi-squared tests and The Heckman selection model were used to examine the effects while controlling for other explanatory factors. Our results show that maternal employment has a significant (p0.1). On the basis of these findings, we suggest that interventions aimed at improving children’s nutrition should promote breastfeeding in work places and flexible working conditions that can permit nursing mothers to maintain close contacts with their children even during working time. VL - 9 IS - 6 ER -
Department of Economics Science and Management, University of Yaoundé II, Yaounde, Cameroon; Policy and Programme Analysis Division, Health Economics Research and Evaluation for Development Results Group (HEREG), Yaounde, Cameroon; Oeconomicus Consulting Cabinet (O2C), Yaounde, Cameroon; Economic Research Unit, Glorious Care Foundation (GLOCAFO), Yaounde, Cameroon
