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Social determinants of malnutrition among Serbian children aged <5 years: ethnic and regional disparities

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To assess the association between growth indicators of Serbian children aged <5 years of Roma and non-Roma populations and social determinants of health.

Methods

This study used a cross-sectional secondary data analysis design to measure national and Roma population samples from the MICS 4 (UNICEF) performed in 2010 in Serbia. A total of 4,978 questionnaires were observed with children aged <5 years. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify association between social determinants of health and growth indicators.

Results

Roma children were more than three times more likely to exhibit stunted and/or severely stunted than non-Roma children from the lowest wealth quintile. Non-Roma children residing outside of the Belgrade region had a lower risk of stunted compared to children residing within the Belgrade region, while the risk of stunted among Roma children was nearly twofold greater than those residing in southern and eastern Serbia than in the Belgrade region.

Conclusions

Our findings clarified the necessity to establish ethnically and regionally sensitive programs to solve the malnutrition problems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank UNICEF for providing data sets of Serbian-national and Roma Settlements sample of MICS 4 survey. This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Serbia, Project No. 175025.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sector for Contracting Healthcare Services and Economic Affairs, National Health Insurance Fund, Belgrade, Serbia

    Jelena Brcanski

  2. Institute of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Aleksandra Jović-Vraneš

  3. Institute of Medical Statistics and Informatics, Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Jelena Marinković

  4. Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Service de la Psychiatrie Génèrale, Genève, Switzerland

    Dragana Favre

Authors
  1. Jelena Brcanski
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  2. Aleksandra Jović-Vraneš
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  3. Jelena Marinković
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  4. Dragana Favre
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Correspondence to Jelena Brcanski.

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Brcanski, J., Jović-Vraneš, A., Marinković, J. et al. Social determinants of malnutrition among Serbian children aged <5 years: ethnic and regional disparities. Int J Public Health 59, 697–706 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0591-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0591-5

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