Women’s empowerment is associated with maternal nutrition and low birth weight: Evidence from Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey

Abstract Background : The burden of maternal undernutrition and low birth weight (LBW) incurs enormous economic costs due to their adverse consequences. Women’s empowerment is believed to be one of the key factors for attaining maternal and child health and nutritional goals. Our objective was to investigate the association of women’s empowerment with maternal undernutrition and LBW. Methods : We used nationally representative data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey for 2011 and 2014. We analysed 27,357 women and 9,234 mother-child pairs. A women’s empowerment index (WEI) was constructed using principal component analysis with five groups of indicators: a) education, b) access to socio-familial decision making, c) economic contribution and access to economic decision making, d) attitudes towards domestic violence…