THE EFFECT OF SANITATION ON CHILD NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN CAMEROON

Abstract

Malnutrition remains one of the major challenges faced by developing countries as the proportion of malnutrition related death among children under-five is still on the rise. Although literature links adequate sanitation to improvements in child nutritional status, empirical evidence on this link is still sparse in Cameroon. To fill this gap, this study’s main purpose was to investigate the nexus between sanitation and the nutritional status of children under five years using the Cameroon Demographic Health Survey for 2018. Specifically, the study was to examine the influence of sanitation on child nutritional status in Cameroon. The methodology employed four indicators of sanitation to construct an index for sanitation using the Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Child nutritional status was captured using height-for-age Z score (stunting). The study employed the instrumental variable two stage least square technique, and the Heckman control function technique to provide empirical evidence of the aforementioned nexus. The results showed that an increase in sanitation level led to a decrease in stunting (increase in child nutritional status) and this was statistically significant at 1%. Sanitation was a significant predictor of child stunting. The implication of this finding is that sanitation is crucial in addressing the issue of malnutrition among under-five in Cameroon. Based on the findings, it is recommended that, the developmental policies should consider improving the level of sanitation in Cameroon as a way of reducing malnutrition among under-five years of age in Cameroon.