Beyond Health Interventions: Economic and Maternal Education Determinants of Child Nutritional Attainment in Indonesia
Abstract
Stunting and child malnutrition remain critical challenges in Indonesia, yet conventional strategies often rely heavily on clinical and medical interventions while neglecting the structural socio-economic drivers that underpin these issues. This study aims to analyze the non-health determinants of child nutritional attainment in Indonesia, specifically examining the role of household economic status and maternal education. Using a quantitative descriptive approach, this study analyzes secondary data from the Survey Status Gizi Indonesia (SSGI) 2024, focusing on three complementary infant and young child feeding (IYCF) indicators for children aged 6–23 months: Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD), Minimum Meal Frequency (MMF), and Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD). National-level proportions of these indicators are compared across household wealth quintiles and maternal education levels. Our findings indicate that children in higher wealth quintils have better nutritional attainment: MDD scores increase from 34.9% to 59.3%. Maternal education shows a comparable trend, where MAD attainment reaches 41.0% among mothers with higher education degrees. MMF shows a markedly flatter gradient across both economic and educational strata, suggesting that meal frequency is less sensitive to household resources than dietary diversity. These findings indicate that household economic status and maternal education are significantly associated with children’s minimum nutritional attainment, particularly the diversity and adequacy of diet rather than feeding frequency alone. As a preliminary conclusion, this study suggests that the government should shift its focus from short-term, clinically oriented programs toward cross-sectoral public policies oriented around sustainable family economic empowerment and maternal education.
Keywords: Child Nutrition, Economic Status, Human Capital, Maternal Education, Public Policy
