Emerging Contaminants (Dec 2023)
The associations of heavy metals exposure in water sources to the risk of stunting cases
Abstract
Stunting is a condition of failure in children-under-five's growth as a result of chronic malnutrition. Thus children become too short for their age, or a condition when a person is shorter than the height of other people (of the same age) in general. In Indonesia, the stunting rate has decreased from the previous year. However, the prevalence still exceeds the maximum stunting rate target set by WHO. Bandung regency is one of the priority areas for stunting prevention in Indonesia. The causes of stunting are quite complex, including the health characteristics of children under five, the sociodemographic factors, and the environmental factors, such as exposure to heavy metals. This study aims to analyze the relationship between environmental factors, especially the water media, and the incidence of stunting in the Bandung regency. The method used is a case-control study (retrospective), using a questionnaire, interviews, and testing of heavy metals in drinking water and clean water samples from children under five that is divided into 26 respondents for the case group and 25 respondents for the control group. The Mann-Whitney U test is conducted to see the relationship between the heavy metal concentration of Pb, Cd, and As and the incidence of stunting. The results show that the concentration of As and Cd in drinking water sources were suspected to be significantly related to the incidence of stunting in Bandung Regency (p-value = 0.008 and 0.024). The Chi-Square Test is also done to determine the significance of children's characteristics, sociodemographic and family history, and sanitation on the risk of stunting. It shows that the significance factors to the risk of stunting is mothers' lower education (p-value = 0.017), fathers' lower education (p-value = 0.003), and lower household income (p-value = 0.005).
