TY - JOUR
T1 - Associations between women's autonomy and child nutritional status
T2 - a review of the literature
AU - Carlson, Gwen J
AU - Kordas, Katarzyna
AU - Murray-Kolb, Laura E
N1 - © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2014/2/13
Y1 - 2014/2/13
N2 - Around the world, many women continue to experience low levels of autonomy. Recent literature has reported that the health consequences of low maternal autonomy extend beyond mothers and translate into health consequences for their children, and may be an important causal factor in child malnutrition. This review summarises the current knowledge of the relationship between maternal autonomy and children's nutritional status (defined as any measure that reflects the nutritional state of the body, such as birthweight or anthropometric scores) and child-feeding practices. The review also includes both discussion of the limitations found in the literature and directions for future research. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Results of the studies included in the review strongly suggest that raising maternal autonomy is an important goal for improving children's nutritional status, yet gaps in the current knowledge exist, further confounded by issues with how autonomy is measured and limitations of cross-cultural comparability. A thorough understanding of the consequences of restricting women's autonomy will inform programmes and policy worldwide, and speed progress towards both empowering women and alleviating the global burden of child malnutrition.
AB - Around the world, many women continue to experience low levels of autonomy. Recent literature has reported that the health consequences of low maternal autonomy extend beyond mothers and translate into health consequences for their children, and may be an important causal factor in child malnutrition. This review summarises the current knowledge of the relationship between maternal autonomy and children's nutritional status (defined as any measure that reflects the nutritional state of the body, such as birthweight or anthropometric scores) and child-feeding practices. The review also includes both discussion of the limitations found in the literature and directions for future research. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Results of the studies included in the review strongly suggest that raising maternal autonomy is an important goal for improving children's nutritional status, yet gaps in the current knowledge exist, further confounded by issues with how autonomy is measured and limitations of cross-cultural comparability. A thorough understanding of the consequences of restricting women's autonomy will inform programmes and policy worldwide, and speed progress towards both empowering women and alleviating the global burden of child malnutrition.
U2 - 10.1111/mcn.12113
DO - 10.1111/mcn.12113
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 24521434
SN - 1740-8695
JO - Maternal and Child Nutrition
JF - Maternal and Child Nutrition
ER -