Community-level determinants of child growth in an Indonesian tea plantation

Objectives: The paper presents the results of an ecological-economic approa ch to identifying community-level factors that influence the physical growt h of young children. Design: A cross-sectional design was used to obtain both the anthropometry and the ecological-economic data. Setting: The sites were 24 communities located in a tea plantation near Ban dung, West Java, Indonesia. Subjects: 415 children between the ages of 6 and 18 months. Methods: Epidemiological and ethnographic methods were used to measure comm unity infrastructure and services related to child growth. Anthropometry wa s used to measure child growth. Econometric methods, including probit and o rdinary least squares regression, were used to analyze the effect of commun ity-level factors on child growth. Results: Community vaccination programs, child care services, environmental sanitation and latrines were associated with better child growth. We concl uded that community-level goods and services substantially contributed to h ealth in early childhood.