Household fish production, fish consumption, dietary diversity, and anthropometric outcomes in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

Child stunting remains a persistent public health challenge in Bangladesh despite substantial socioeconomic progress. This paper investigates the association between household aquaculture engagement, dietary diversity and children’s anthropometric outcomes, specifically height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) and stunting prevalence, utilizing longitudinal data from rural Bangladesh. Our findings demonstrate that households engaged in aquaculture exhibit substantially enhanced food security indicators, including significantly greater consumption of home-produced foods and fish, and higher dietary diversity scores compared to non-aquaculture households. Notably, we identify a significant interaction effect whereby female children in households characterized by both aquaculture engagement and higher levels of women’s empowerment demonstrate significantly higher HAZ scores and reduced stunting risk. These empirical results suggest that the synergistic combination of household aquaculture systems and women’s empowerment represents a critical pathway for enhancing household food security and mitigating child malnutrition—with particularly pronounced benefits for female children—in rural Bangladesh contexts. The findings have substantial implications for integrated intervention strategies targeting both aquaculture development and women’s empowerment in similar low- and middle-income country settings.