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This paper examines the impact of work days off due to illness on the financial status and livelihoods of poor slum dwellers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Data on illness and socio-economic status were collected in a panel survey with monthly rounds. We contacted over 12 000 individuals during a 12-month period and 2682 adults had taken work days off due to illness. Where adults had taken time off work due to illness, coping responses included a deficit in their financial situation, reducing expenditure, taking loans or mortgages, selling assets, changing their work and begging. Particular households may be vulnerable to adult ill-health. When ill-health prevents an adult earner from working, the household financial situation deteriorates, and strategies are used to offset the effect. It is likely that adult illness is a major contributor to chronic poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To identify socio-economic demographic and environmental factors that predict better height-for-age for children under 5 years of age in a Dhaka slum population., Design: A panel survey, conducted between 1995 and 1997. A random sample of households was selected. Socio-economic, demographic and environmental variables were collected monthly by questionnaire and nutritional status was assessed., Setting: Dhaka slums in Bangladesh., Subjects: Three hundred and ninety-two children, surveyed in September-November 1996., Main Outcome Measures: Height-for-age Z-score (HAZ) above -2., Results: Thirty-one per cent of children had HAZ >-2. Logistic regression adjusted for cluster sampling showed that better nourished children were more likely to have taller mothers, to be from female-headed households and from families with higher income, electricity in the home, better latrines, more floor space and living in Central Mohammadpur. Better nourished children were less likely to have fathers who have taken days off from work due to illness. CONCLUSIONS Interest in 'positive deviance' is motivated by the recognition that a focus on the malnourished only--the bottom tail of the distribution--provides indications of how families fail, but not of how they succeed in maintaining child nutrition in the face of adversity. Our analysis provides an alternative perspective on nutrition and vulnerability in an urban slum setting.

This study looks at women from the slums in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh, where 54 percent of women's BMI was less than 18.5. Fifty percent of the Dhaka slum population lived below the poverty line. Logistic regression showed that women with income above 1,500 taka per capita were 1.78 times more likely to have a higher BMI (odds ratio 1.7863; CI = 0.671-3.639). Women with their own savings were 1.89 times more likely to have higher BMI (odds ratio 1.879; CI = 0.01163-1.6431). Women were 4.5 times more likely to have a higher BMI when food expenditure per capita above 559 taka per month (odds ratio 4.55; CI = 1.0302-8.0799). Women were 1.82 times more likely to have higher BMI when there was a break even situation in financial status (odds ratio 1.8212; CI = -015709-3.6285). Female headed households were 3.3 times more likely to have a higher BMI compared to women living in male headed households (odds ratio 3.2966; CI = 0.33711-6.25620). Women who work 15-23 days per month were 2.3 times more likely to have a higher BMI (odds ratio 2.33; CI = 0.1133-4.5600). Women who are the budget manager are 1.12 times more likely to have a higher BMI (odds ratio 1.125; CI = 0.29296-2.0966). Where as a husband who beats his wife is 1.83 more likely to have a poorer BMI (odds ratio 1.8312; CI = -3.72596-0.17508). Women who have no marriage documents and women who take days off due to illness less than 11 days per month were more likely to have a poorer BMI (odds ratio 0.5567; CI = -0.049339-2.8379; odds ratio 0.7569; CI = 0.183167-2.0002). Women's nutritional status and well being can influence their ability to provide for themselves and their families and the demonstration of a relationship between measures of women's autonomy and control in the household and women's nutritional status is an important indication of the importance of these sociological constructs. Women's participation in work outside the home may be a factor increasing their autonomy. The identification of relationships between women's autonomy and control and their physical well being should provide further leverage for policy change that will enable women to escape some traditional roles and to contribute as more equal partners with men in the future of Bangladeshi society.

Objectives: To identify groups within Dhaka slums that report similar patterns of livelihood, and to explore nutritional and health status., Design: A random sample of households participated in a longitudinal study in 1995-1997. Socio-economic and morbidity data were collected monthly by questionnaire and nutritional status was assessed. Cluster analysis was used to aggregate households into livelihood groups., Setting: Dhaka slums, Bangladesh., Subjects: Five-hundred and fifty-nine households., Main Outcome Measures: Socio-economic and demographic variables, nutritional status, morbidity., Results: Four livelihood groups were identified. Cluster 1 was the richest cluster with land, animals, business assets and savings. Loans as well as income were higher, which shows that this group was credit-worthy. The group was mainly self-employed and worked more days per month than the other clusters. The cluster had the second highest body mass index (BMI) score, and the highest children's nutrition status. Cluster 2 was a poor cluster and was mainly dependent self-employed. Savings and loans were lower. Cluster 3 was the most vulnerable cluster. Members of this group were mainly casual unskilled, and 40% were female-headed households. Total income and expenditure were lowest amongst the clusters. BMI and children's nutritional status were lowest in the slum. Cluster 4 was the second richest cluster. This group comprised skilled workers. BMI was the highest in this cluster and children's nutritional status was second highest., Conclusions: Cluster analysis has identified four groups that differed in terms of socio-economic, demographic and nutritional status and morbidity. The technique could be a practically useful tool of relevance to the development, monitoring and targeting of vulnerable households by public policy in Bangladesh.