Table 4 Relationship between wasting among children (0–59 months) with household, child, maternal characteristics in Malawi (2010), Tanzania (2009–10) and Zimbabwe (2005–6)

 Household head is female

1.37

0.90

0.92

−0.27

0.84

−0.98

 Total number of people in the household

1.08

1.36

1.01

0.40

0.84

−3.63^b

 Rural residence dummy

1.37

0.79

1.32

1.04

1.05

0.13

 Wealth

0.97

−0.40

1.05

0.57

1.04

0.37

 Age of child (in months)

0.97

−4.45^b

0.97

−4.16^b

0.98

−3.96^b

 Whether the child is male

1.18

0.94

1.39

1.94

1.17

0.92

 Large size of the child at birth

0.63

−1.75

0.61

−1.82

0.55

−3.27^b

 Child is of multiple birth

2.22

1.51

0.68

−0.71

1.47

0.88

 Birth order

1.01

0.11

1.02

0.21

0.99

−0.10

 Had diarrhoea recently

0.84

−0.73

1.20

0.71

1.51

2.33^c

 Mother’s current age

0.95

−1.57

1.00

0.03

1.02

1.06

 Mother’s body mass - underweight

1.55

1.16

2.32

3.48^b

1.53

1.80

 Mother’s body mass - normal

1.00

1.00

1.00

 Mother’s body mass - overweight

0.65

−1.04

0.55

−1.94

1.05

0.21

 Mother’s body mass – pregnant and postpartum

0.94

−0.20

1.11

0.46

1.31

1.21

 Number of under-five children

0.76

−1.94

1.01

0.06

1.07

0.64

Mother’s education level^a

 Mother’s education – None

1.00

1.00

0.79

−0.56

 Mother’s education – Junior Primary

0.75

−1.19

0.95

−0.15

0.97

−0.09

 Mother’s education – Senior Primary

0.69

−1.36

0.55

−2.76^b

1.00

 Mother’s education – Junior Secondary

0.43

−1.75

0.33

−2.24^c

0.61

−2.22^c

 Mother’s education – Senior secondary +

0.34

−2.04^c

0.33

−1.98^c

0.15

−240^c

 Household with safe water

0.82

−0.74

1.03

0.14

0.96

−0.22

 Household with improved toilet facility

1.25

0.77

1.04

0.19

0.85

−0.74

F Statistic

LR χ²

Pseudo R²

N