<![CDATA[Malnutrition among toddlers remains a major public health challenge in East Java Province and is shaped by diverse socio-economic and health factors that vary across regions. These disparities create spatial patterns that cannot be fully captured by global regression models. This study aims to analyse the spatial distribution of toddler malnutrition using Geographically Weighted Negative Binomial Regression (GWNBR), which accommodates local variations in the relationships between predictors and the outcome. The study uses secondary data from the East Java Provincial Health Office and the Central Statistics Agency for 2023, covering 38 districts/cities. Exploratory results indicate overdispersion, supporting the use of the Negative Binomial model, while the Breusch–Pagan test confirms spatial heterogeneity. The GWNBR findings show that the number of infants with low birth weight, exclusive breastfeeding, the availability of community health centres, deliveries in health facilities, complete basic immunisation, and the proportion of poor households significantly affect the number of malnourished toddlers, with varying directions and magnitudes across districts/cities. Spatial mapping identifies three significance groups, indicating differences in dominant contributing factors between regions. Overall, the study concludes that GWNBR provides more accurate and spatially adaptive results and can serve as a basis for more targeted malnutrition-control policies.]]>
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