Child chronic undernutrition, as measured by stunting, is prevalent in low- and middle-income countries and is among the major threats to child development. While stunting and its implications for cognitive development have been considered irreversible beyond early childhood there is a lack of consensus in the literature on this, as there is some evidence of recovery from stunting and that this...

OBJECTIVES: To assess and quantify the magnitude of inequalities in under-five child malnutrition, particularly those ascribable to socio-economic status and to consider the policy implications of these findings. METHODS: Data on 3765 under-five children were derived from the Living Standards and Development Survey. Household income, proxied by per capita household expenditure, was used as the ...

BACKGROUND Child growth is internationally recognized as an important indicator of nutritional status and health in populations. Child under-nutrition is estimated to be the largest contributor to global burden of disease, and it clusters in South Asia but literature on under-nutrition among school-aged children is difficult to find in this region. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and s...

BACKGROUND The Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) carried out the Rural Primary Health Care Project (RPHC) with a government-led, province-level, integrated intervention that targeted children under 3 years old in rural areas of western China from 2001 to 2005. The objective of this study was to measure the effectiveness of the intervention on child...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the evolution of stunting among children and adolescents and identify their associated factors. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study using data from the state health and nutrition surveys that were conducted in Pernambuco (Northeastern Brazil) in 1997 and 2006. The sample was probabilistic (random and stratified) and was representative of urban and rural strata of the...

BACKGROUND This study is the second to investigate the association between the use of biomass fuels (BMF) for household cooking and anaemia and stunting in children. Such fuels include coal, charcoal, wood, dung and crop residues. METHODS Data from the 2006-2007 Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey (a cross-sectional study design) were analysed. Childhood stunting was ascertained through a...

BACKGROUND In Mexico, stunting and anemia have declined but are still high in some regions and subpopulations, whereas overweight and obesity have increased at alarming rates in all age and socioeconomic groups. OBJECTIVE The objective was to describe the coexistence of stunting, anemia, and overweight and obesity at the national, household, and individual levels. DESIGN We estimated nation...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES This study attempts to compare the pattern of growth of Indian children as assessed by weight for age, height for age and BMI for age with the WHO standards for growth (2006) and to explore the implications of differences in undernutrition rates in the 0-59 months of age group as assessed by these three indices. METHODS From the National Family Health Survey-3 database...

Livestock ownership has the potential to improve child nutrition through various mechanisms, although direct evaluations of household livestock and child stunting status are uncommon. We conducted an analysis of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) datasets from Ethiopia (2011), Kenya (2008-2009), and Uganda (2010) among rural children under 5 years of age to compare stunting status across level...

Background: Malnutrition in preschool children is a major public health problem globally. It is more common in developing countries. It affects growth and development thus impairing both physical and mental ability. Methods: This community based, cross-sectional survey was carried out among 658 underprivileged children (315 boys) of 2-6 years from Midnapore, India. The nutritional status of the...