Project report
Malnutrition Gap as a New Measure of Child Malnutrition : A Global Application
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Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5The study proposes a new way to measure child malnutrition, adapting methods used to estimate poverty. Existing indicators such as stunting, wasting, underweight and overweight only count how many children are affected. They do not show how far children fall below the WHO growth standards. The authors calculate the prevalence, gap and gap squared of malnutrition using data from 94 developing countries over 20 years. They find that the new measures give extra information on severity that headcount measures miss.
Key points
- Existing malnutrition indicators are headcount ratios and do not capture how far children are behind WHO growth standards.
- The study adapts a poverty measurement method to produce prevalence, gap and gap squared measures for stunting, wasting, overweight and underweight.
- Data cover 94 developing countries over 20 years.
- In most cases headcount and gap measures move in the same direction, but in many other cases they move in opposite directions.
- Some countries have a low headcount but comparatively high severity of malnutrition, and vice versa.
Limitations
The abstract does not give specific country results, numbers or data sources, so the size of the differences between headcount and gap measures cannot be judged. It also does not say how the new measures compare with existing ones in practical monitoring.
Abstract
"Leaving no one behind" is an overarching principle of the Sustainable Development Goals. Many countries are prioritizing resources for those who are furthest behind. Existing malnutrition indicators—underweight, stunting, wasting, overweight, and severe wasting—are headcount ratios. They do not capture how far behind malnourished children are relative to the World Health Organization growth standards. To understand the severity of malnutrition, this study develops a new malnutrition measurement, using the method originally developed for estimating poverty. This study estimates the prevalence, gap, and gap squared for stunting, wasting, overweight, and underweight, using data from 94 developing countries over 20 years. The results show that although in most cases the headcount measures and gap measures are moving in the same direction, in many other cases, they are moving in opposite directions. Moreover, employing the new measures, the study can identify countries that have low levels of headcount for a malnutrition measure but comparatively high severity of malnutrition according to the gap measures, and vice versa. This suggests that these new malnutrition measures provide additional information on the severity of malnutrition that is not possible to be known from headcount measures. These new measures of the severity of malnutrition can therefore improve the monitoring of child malnutrition across countries, and consequently help countries to achieve their Sustainable Development Goals. (World)