Parental child marriages and childhood undernutrition in India: A cross-spousal analysis using a nationally representative data

Undernutrition is a major health burden among children and adult in India. The risk on childhood undernutrition is perpetuated through the operation of an array of risk factors including nutritional, socioeconomic and environmental characteristics. A few studies have attempted to establish causal linkages between childhood undernutrition and maternal child marriages. However, there is no clear understanding regarding the plausible association between parental child marriage and childhood undernutrition in India.
This study examine the influence of parental child marriages (marriage below legal ages) on childhood nutritional status in India.
Methods: The study population was a nationally representative cross-section sample of singleton children (n=16756) who were aged 0 to 59 months from the 2005-2006 Indian National Family Health Survey. Modified logistic regression models that account for multistage survey design and sampling weights were applied to estimate the association between parental child marriages and childhood undernutrition. The outcome measures were child underweight and stunting; parental child marriages (<18 yrs among mothers & <21 yrs among fathers) was the primary exposure variable.
In the mutually adjusted regression models, we do not find any significant association between pare