March 2002, Volume 8 No. 1

ARTICLE 2

Nutritional Assessment of Pre-School Children in Rural Villages of the Family Dynamics, Lifestyles and Nutrition Study (1997-2001)
I. Socio-Economic Status of Households

Chee Heng Leng¹, Khor Geok Lin², Fatimah Arshad³ and Wan Abdul Manan Wan Muda⁴, Ahmad Affendi Shabdin⁵, Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah⁶, Rohani Abdullah⁷, Siti Jamilah Bidin⁵, Zahid Emby⁶ & Zamaliah Mohd Marjan^2
1 Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor
² Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor
³ Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur
⁴ School of Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan
⁵ School of Languages and Scientific Thinking, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah
⁶ Department of Social Science and Development, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor
⁷ Department of Family Development Studies, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the socio-economic profile of households in the Family Dynamics Study (FDS) (1997-2001) and makes comparisons with the earlier Functional Groups Study (FGS) (1992-1996). For the current study, FGS villages with a high prevalence of child malnutrition were purposively selected. In each village selected, all households were included, and interviews with a structured questionnaire were conducted in April-May 1998. Incomes were generally low and incidence of poverty was high; 49.6% of the households were under the poverty line income, of which 37.2% were poor and 12.4% were hard core poor. Overall, only 23.2% of heads of households were in agricultural occupations, others being primarily waged workers and petty traders. Livestock rearing was widespread (57.8%), and most households (90.4%) owned at least one motorised vehicle, the most common being the motorcycle. The majority of households had refrigerators (73.6%), washing machines (58.8%), and televisions (91.1%); but telephones (42.2%), mobile phones (6.1%) and computers (2.3%) were less common. Although 99.7% of households had electricity supply and 95.1% had either a flush or pour flush latrine, only 57.4% had piped water supply. In comparison to the FGS, poverty in the current study is lower (49.6% of FDS households are poor compared to 55.2% of FGS households), the proportion of household heads in agricultural occupations is also lower (26.9% compared to 55.3%), while all other socioeconomic indicators were better, except for piped water supply, which remains inadequate for households in the current study.

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