Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.

<h4>Background and objectives</h4>Child undernutrition is a leading global health concern, especially in low and middle-income developing countries, including Bangladesh. Thus, the objectives of this study are to develop an appropriate model for predicting the risk of undernutrition and...

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Main Authors: Md Merajul Islam, Nobab Md Shoukot Jahan Kibria, Sujit Kumar, Dulal Chandra Roy, Md Rezaul Karim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315393
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author Md Merajul Islam
Nobab Md Shoukot Jahan Kibria
Sujit Kumar
Dulal Chandra Roy
Md Rezaul Karim
author_facet Md Merajul Islam
Nobab Md Shoukot Jahan Kibria
Sujit Kumar
Dulal Chandra Roy
Md Rezaul Karim
author_sort Md Merajul Islam
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background and objectives</h4>Child undernutrition is a leading global health concern, especially in low and middle-income developing countries, including Bangladesh. Thus, the objectives of this study are to develop an appropriate model for predicting the risk of undernutrition and identify its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>This study used the latest nationally representative cross-sectional Bangladesh demographic health survey (BDHS), 2017-18 data. The Boruta technique was implemented to identify the important predictors of undernutrition, and logistic regression, artificial neural network, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) were adopted to predict undernutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) risk. The models' performance was evaluated through accuracy and area under the curve (AUC). Additionally, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were employed to illustrate the influencing predictors of undernutrition.<h4>Results</h4>The XGB-based model outperformed the other models, with the accuracy and AUC respectively 81.73% and 0.802 for stunting, 76.15% and 0.622 for wasting, and 79.13% and 0.712 for underweight. Moreover, the SHAP method demonstrated that the father's education, wealth, mother's education, BMI, birth interval, vitamin A, watching television, toilet facility, residence, and water source are the influential predictors of stunting. While, BMI, mother education, and BCG of wasting; and father education, wealth, mother education, BMI, birth interval, toilet facility, breastfeeding, birth order, and residence of underweight.<h4>Conclusion</h4>The proposed integrating framework will be supportive as a method for selecting important predictors and predicting children who are at high risk of stunting, wasting, and underweight in Bangladesh.
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spelling doaj-art-9bba364c68fb482f91d1235333bcdbc92025-08-20T01:59:18ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032024-01-011912e031539310.1371/journal.pone.0315393Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.Md Merajul IslamNobab Md Shoukot Jahan KibriaSujit KumarDulal Chandra RoyMd Rezaul Karim<h4>Background and objectives</h4>Child undernutrition is a leading global health concern, especially in low and middle-income developing countries, including Bangladesh. Thus, the objectives of this study are to develop an appropriate model for predicting the risk of undernutrition and identify its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>This study used the latest nationally representative cross-sectional Bangladesh demographic health survey (BDHS), 2017-18 data. The Boruta technique was implemented to identify the important predictors of undernutrition, and logistic regression, artificial neural network, random forest, and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) were adopted to predict undernutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) risk. The models' performance was evaluated through accuracy and area under the curve (AUC). Additionally, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) were employed to illustrate the influencing predictors of undernutrition.<h4>Results</h4>The XGB-based model outperformed the other models, with the accuracy and AUC respectively 81.73% and 0.802 for stunting, 76.15% and 0.622 for wasting, and 79.13% and 0.712 for underweight. Moreover, the SHAP method demonstrated that the father's education, wealth, mother's education, BMI, birth interval, vitamin A, watching television, toilet facility, residence, and water source are the influential predictors of stunting. While, BMI, mother education, and BCG of wasting; and father education, wealth, mother education, BMI, birth interval, toilet facility, breastfeeding, birth order, and residence of underweight.<h4>Conclusion</h4>The proposed integrating framework will be supportive as a method for selecting important predictors and predicting children who are at high risk of stunting, wasting, and underweight in Bangladesh.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315393
spellingShingle Md Merajul Islam
Nobab Md Shoukot Jahan Kibria
Sujit Kumar
Dulal Chandra Roy
Md Rezaul Karim
Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
PLoS ONE
title Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
title_full Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
title_fullStr Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
title_full_unstemmed Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
title_short Prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under-five children in Bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms.
title_sort prediction of undernutrition and identification of its influencing predictors among under five children in bangladesh using explainable machine learning algorithms
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315393
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