**4.5 Drinking water**

556 Current Topics in Tropical Medicine

In addition, the patterns of the nonlinear effect in LVM3 (Figure 3) are similar to the patterns of LVM1 and LVM2. The same is true with regard to the spatial effects of LVM3 (Figure 4). Figure 2 shows that the districts in the southeastern through the southern part of the

The results of estimating the geoadditive latent variable models with continuous response

The likelihood of being stunted and underweight was lower for girls than for boys; a finding consistent with .(Klasen 1996; Lavy, Strauss et al. 1996; Svedberg 1996; Gibson 2001; Kandala 2001; Borooah 2002; S.B 2003); on the other hand, Gibson (2001) did not find any significant gender difference between the *height-for-age* and the *weight-for-age* in Papua, New Guinea.

Although, rural living was expected to have many problems, such as, poor health, use of unprotected water supplies, lack of charcoal as fuel, lack of milk consumption, and lack of personal hygiene (which assumed to be the risk factors of nutritional status), the results indicate that the place of residence is not associated with significant effects on wasting, underweight, and for stunting. This is consistent with some studies, but not with others: Adebayo (2003) found that where the mother lives (rural/urban) has no statistical significance for child's *weight-for-height*, and a similar impact of where the mother lives, as in *height-for-age*, is observed in *weight-for-age*, though Kandala found that urban areas have a statistical significance for a child's *height-for-age* in Tanzania and Malawi (Lavy, Strauss et al.

Maternal education, which is related to household wealth, is a determinant of good childcare knowledge and practices. The education attainment of mothers is mostly significant in

The results with two indicators are quite similar to the results with three indicators with regard to this variable. This result supports the suggestion that an educated mother assumes the responsibility of taking a sick child to receive health care. Further, the time that mothers spend discussing their child's illness with a doctor is almost directly proportional to their level of education: consequently, illiterate women (with sick children) get much less out of visiting a doctor than literate women do. These findings are consistent with many studies in the context of developing countries (Africa Nutrition chartbooks 1996, Borooah 2002), which reported that maternal education has a strong and significant effect on stunting. They found that at primary levels of education,, effects on stunting are small or negligible, and they

Work has a non significant effect on the malnutrition status of children in Nigeria. The results are consistent with some previous studies and not consistent with others. Some

increase only at secondary or higher levels.(Chartbooks 1996; Borooah 2002).

country are associated with better nutrition of children in Nigeria.

variables are indicated and suggest the following:

**4.2 Malnutrition among residences** 

1996; Gibson 2001; Borooah 2002)

**4.3 Mother's education** 

the analysis of LVM.

**4.4 Working mothers** 

**4. Discussion** 

**4.1 Child's sex** 

A household's source of drinking water has been shown to be associated with the nutritional status of a child in Nigeria (*weight-for-age*) in separate analysis (Khatab, 2007), and it seems to be mostly significant in the results of LVM. In other words, the source of water is associated with the nutritional status of a child through its impact on the risk of childhood diseases such as diarrhea, and is affected indirectly as a measure of wealth and availability of water.
