Browsing by Author "Mahao, Lekoetse"

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    Socioeconomic inequalities in the prevalence of double- burden malnutrition in South African households
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Mahao, Lekoetse; Rossouw, Laura
    This paper reviews the double-burden of malnutrition at the household-level, specifically mother-child double burden of malnutrition (MCDB) in South Africa. Nationally representative data from the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS) was used. All five waves of NIDS (2008-2017) were used for descriptive statistics and to quantify the extent of inequality in MCDB using Erreygers’ Corrected Concentration Index. The most recent wave (wave 5, 2017) was used to determine the factors associated with inequality in MCDB using Wagstaff’s decomposition analysis. The results confirm the existence of MCDB in South Africa and indicate that the prevalence of MCDB was the highest in the third wave of NIDS (2012). However, there has been no consistent increase or decrease in the prevalence of MCDB across waves. Inequality in MCDB was the highest in wave 2 (2010 – 2011), with MCDB being disproportionately concentrated amongst the poor. Wagstaff’s decomposition analysis revealed that differences in the distribution of wealth was the biggest contributor to wealth-related inequality in MCDB. The findings of this study confirm the stated hypotheses, and suggest that inequality in MCDB is unfair and unjust. Addressing wealth inequality in the country may be a means to improving nutritional outcomes amongst vulnerable mothers and children. Policies aimed at addressing malnutrition should also target mothers, since mothers’ health and socioeconomic status affect children’s nutritional outcomes. Moreover, policies should not aggravate one form of malnutrition while attempting to address the other. Improving nutritional outcomes in the country may also be a means to impeding deleterious economic outcomes