Determinants of coexistence of stunting, wasting, and underweight among children under five years in the Gambia; evidence from 2019/20 Gambian demographic health survey: Application of multivariate binary logistic regression model

Background: Malnutrition is a scarcity or inappropriate consumption of energy and nutrients. It comprises both undernutrition and overnutrition. The present study is aimed to evaluate the relationship between undernutrition indicators of stunting, underweight, and wasting among those under five years given other predictors. Method The data was obtained from the measure of DHS program. A total of 2,399 in 2019/20 under-five children were involved in this study. A multivariate binary logistic regression model is used to assess the association between stunting, wasting, and being underweight given the effect of other predictors. Result Of 2,399 children under-five years considered in this study 13.5, 18.7 and 5.9% of them suffered from stunting, underweight, and wasting respectively. The majority of children (40.1%) were obtained from the Brikama local government area of Gambia, more than half of the children (52.9%) were male, and 63.3% of children were live in urban areas. The association between stunting and underweight, underweight and wasting, and stunting and wasting was measured by odds ratio (OR) 15.87, 46.34, and 0.31 respectively given the other predictors. The estimated odds ratio for children who have an average birth size to become stunted, underweight, and wasted were 0.965, 0.885, and 0.989 times the estimated odds ratio of children who have a small birth size respectively. Conclusion The prevalence of stunting and wasting for under-five children in Gambia was lower than the world prevalence. Birth size of children was the important determinant of stunting, underweight, and wasting for children under-five years. Whereas, the birth type of children, anemia level of children, and age of children were significantly correlated with stunting and underweight. But body mass index of a mother is the only predictor significantly correlated with stunting.