Peer-reviewed article
Stunting trajectories from post‐infancy to adolescence in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam
Jewel Gausman, Rockli Kim, S.V. Subramanian ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study follows 7,128 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam across five survey waves between ages 1 and 15. It looks at who is stunted early, who recovers, and who becomes stunted later. Many children stunted by age 1 stay stunted into adolescence, but many others recover, and some who were never stunted early become stunted later. The authors conclude that support for healthy growth should continue throughout childhood, not only in the first 1,000 days.
Key points
- 29.6% of children were first stunted by age 1, and 12.9% were first stunted by age 5 (averages across the four countries).
- 68.7% of children were not stunted at either age 1 or age 5.
- 40.7% of children first stunted by age 1 were still stunted at age 15, compared with 32.3% of those first stunted by age 5.
- 33.7% of children first stunted by age 1 and 31.1% of those first stunted by age 5 recovered but then faltered again in later childhood.
- 13.1% of children not stunted at age 1 or age 5 became newly stunted between ages 8 and 15.
Limitations
The abstract describes descriptive and graphical analysis only, so it cannot show what causes stunting, recovery or faltering. It also gives no country-by-country results, and no intervention is evaluated.
Abstract
AbstractMany interventions focus on preventing stunting in the first 1,000 days of life. We take a broader perspective on childhood growth to assess the proportions of children who suffer persistent stunting, recover, and falter and become newly stunted between birth and adolescence. We use longitudinal data collected on 7,128 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. Data were collected in five survey waves between the ages of 1 to 15 years. We use descriptive and graphical approaches to compare the trajectories of children first stunted by age 1, first stunted by age 5, and those remained not stunted until age 5. On average, 29.6% of children were first stunted by age 1, 12.9% of children were first stunted by the age 5, and 68.7% of children were not stunted at either age 1 or age 5. A larger percentage of children stunted by age 1 remained stunted at age 15 (40.7%) compared with those who were first stunted by age 5 (32.3%); 33.7% of children first stunted by age 1 and 31.1% of children first stunted by age 5 go on to recover, but then falter during later childhood. 13.1% of children who were not stunted at age 1 or age 5 become newly stunted between the ages of 8 and 15. Our results show that children both become stunted and recover from stunting into adolescence. More attention should be paid to interventions to support healthy growth throughout childhood.