Maternal anemia and baby birth size mediate the association between short birth interval and under-five undernutrition in Ethiopia: a generalized structural equation modeling approach

Table 3 Associations between exposure, sequential mediators and outcome variables, EDHS 2016

Models		β^a (95% CI)	P value
Stunting	Short birth interval and maternal anemia^†	0.368 (0.267, 0.469)	< 0.001
	Maternal anemia and baby birth size ^††	0.124 (0.048, 0.201)	0.001
	Birth size and stunting^†††	0.258 (0.148, 0.367)	< 0.001
	Short birth interval and stunting^u	0.337 (0.240, 0.434)	< 0.001
	Short birth interval and stunting^a	0.286 (0.185, 0.387)	< 0.001
Underweight	Short birth interval and maternal anemia^†	0.360 (0.261, 0.460)	< 0.001
	Maternal anemia and baby birth size ^††	0.115 (0.039, 0.190)	0.003
	Birth size and underweight^†††	0.399 (0.283, 0.515)	< 0.001
	Short birth interval and underweight^u	0.449 (0.342, 0.553)	< 0.001
	Short birth interval and underweight^a	0.338 (0.228, 0.448)	< 0.001

^aThe models were adjusted for maternal age at the birth of the index child, maternal education, maternal occupation, wealth, place of residence, regions, and number of children ever born
^uThe effect of short birth interval on stunting and underweight, respectively, without adjusting for maternal anemia and baby birth size
^aThe effect of short birth interval on stunting and underweight, respectively, adjusting for maternal anemia and birth size
^†,^{††,†††}The value of β’s and P values were different in the two models because the models were adjusted for different forms of child undernutrition

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