Poverty Effect on Stunting Among Children Under Two in Kalimantan Region,Indonesia: A Secondary Study

Abstract

Stunting in children in Kalimantan, Indonesia, a resource-rich region commonly seen as economically advantaged but with large social and economic inequities across provinces and districts, is examined in this secondary analysis. Many Kalimantan communities lack access to education, steady jobs, health services, and adequate nutrition, perpetuating childhood undernutrition despite the region's natural abundance and prosperity. We carefully examined 6038 children, using stature as the outcome and income as the exposure. Province, domicile, maternal age, marital status, education, occupation, children's age, gender, and early breastfeeding initiation were included as controls. Our binary logistic regression analysis matched earlier findings. The poorest people were 2.150 times more likely to be stunted (95% CI 2.096-2.205). A lower level increased the risk of stunting by 1.540 times (95% CI 1.504-1.577). The middle class was 1.397 times more likely to be stunted than the wealthy (95% CI 1.365-1.429). Richer people had 0.949 times the risk of stunting (95% CI 0.928-0.970). These findings show that economic growth and regional development in Kalimantan have not led to equitable nutritional outcomes for young children, highlighting the need for targeted, poverty-sensitive nutrition policies, improved social protection for underserved households, and context-specific interventions to address structural inequalities in early-life health.