The Targets for Stunting Prevention Policies in Papua, Indonesia: What Mothers’ Characteristics Matter?

Abstract

The study aimed to analyze the most appropriate maternal characteristics for stunting prevention policies. The study employed secondary data from the 2017 Indonesia Nutritional Status Monitoring Survey. The study obtained weighted samples of 11,887 Papuan children under five years of age. On the other hand, the study used the nutritional status as an outcome variable and maternal characteristics as an exposure variable. The research employed the following four control variables: residence, region, under-five age, and gender. The study occupied the binary logistic regression. The results show that mothers who graduated from primary school and under were 1.263 times more likely than mothers with a college education to have stunted children. Mothers who graduated from junior high school are 1.222 times more likely than mothers with a college education to have stunted children. Mothers who graduated from senior high school were 1.122 times more likely than mothers with a college education to have stunted children. Mothers with a never-married status have a 1.138 times greater probability than divorced/widowed mothers to have stunted children. Meanwhile, married mothers are 0.936 times more likely than divorced/widowed mothers to have stunted children. The study concluded that the target group for stunting prevention policies are mothers with poor education and who are single.