Reports

Every report we find, newest first.

Reports gathered from around the world, newest first.

How to use the reports

1Search by title, author or topic, or narrow the list by right, region and type of design.
2Open a report to read its summary and the findings taken from it.
3Choose "Read at source" to go to the original document.
4For older reports, set Age of report to Archive.

15,273 reports · page 62 of 1528

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC1 Feb 2026

Mobile Health Interventions for Caregivers to Prevent Stunting Among Children: A Scoping Review.

Aim To map the current literature on the use of mobile health interventions by caregivers to prevent stunting in children. Background Combining mobile technology with health education or community engagement has shown promise as an intervention for preventing child stunting. Method Following Arksey and O'Malley's scoping methodology and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a systematic search was conducted across multiple databases, including PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and Web of Science. A total of 317 records were assessed, and seven studies were included for critical review. Results Included studies composed of three randomized controlled trials, one quasi-experimental trial and three pilot studies. Types of mobile health interventions included mobile apps, interactive voice response (IVR) audio messages, WhatsApp and chatbots, which were delivered through self-guided and provider-assisted modes. Protocols were conducted through daily or weekly messages or structured multi-week modules over periods of weeks to months. Outcomes measured included caregivers' cognition, child diet, child growth and health, service utilization and maternal well-being. Improvements were observed in caregivers' knowledge and feeding practices. However, the results for child growth and immunization were inconsistent. Conclusion Mobile health interventions have considerable potential to enhance caregivers' knowledge and improve feeding practices, which are crucial for preventing stunting globally.

Choliq I, Fitriyani VR, Lin SY

Survival

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC6 Dec 2025

Integrating education-based interventions and machine learning for stunting prevention: A case study in East Lombok, Indonesia.

One of the regions in Indonesia that has the highest prevalence of stunting cases is West Nusa Tenggara, with a percentage of cases almost reaching 12.7 %, even though this province is a priority target for stunting reduction by 2022. Specifically in the East Lombok region, this study took this location point because of the high number of stunting cases in West Nusa Tenggara. Puskesmas Denggen was the target of the study, covering six working areas namely Denggen, East Dengen, Majidi, Rakam, Sekarteja, and Pancor, with a total of 3416 under-five data. The data were obtained through two measurements: the initial in February 2024 and the final in August 2024. This research integrates a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing health and nutrition science, psychology, education, and religion, to create comprehensive interventions for stunting prevention and employs machine learning models to predict future cases. The interventions include Motivation, Hygiene, Nutrition, Mental Health, and Infant Health, which are designed to cover all the essential needs of children in the growth and development process. The results of the six villages measured showed that significant changes in data were obtained in Denggen Village when compared before and after the intervention. The results of measuring the effectiveness of the anti-stunting educational interventions were also found to be effective across the five key aspects, with several showing dominant and statistically significant improvements. The machine learning algorithms used also achieved very high accuracy using Decision Tree and Gaussian Naive Bayes. This anti-stunting education model can be applied to the same case in a wider scope by paying attention to several aspects as an evaluation.

Arqam ML, Firdaus AA, Atmojo AM et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentIDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC26 Jun 2026

Burden and Predictors of Anaemia in Children 1 to 5 Years at the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality in Ghana.

Background The burden and effects of anaemia remain high worldwide, with predictors varying by location, demographics, and socioeconomic factors. Knowing localised, specific predictors of anaemia helps develop targeted local interventions. We therefore set out to determine the prevalence and predictors of anaemia in a semiurban and rural community in Ghana. Methods From June to August 2021, a community-based cross-sectional study using multilevel sampling was conducted in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality, Ghana. Four hundred and seventy-six children, aged one to five, were recruited from four communities in the Kasei Subdistrict. Using a structured questionnaire, clinical, demographic, anthropometric, dietary and laboratory data, including blood haemoglobin, were obtained. The data were entered into EpiData and analysed with R statistical software. A multivariate ordinal logistic regression model was used to identify independent predictors of increasing anaemia severity. Results The prevalence of anaemia was 76.3% (95% CI: 72.2-80.0), with mild, moderate and severe anaemia being 28.8% (95% CI: 24.7-33.1), 44.3% (95% CI: 39.8-48.9) and 3.2% (95% CI: 1.8-5.1), respectively. Two hundred and fifty (52.5%) children had malaria parasitaemia. Independent predictors of worsening anaemia severity were increasing age (aOR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.95-0.98, p < 0.001), child eating from his/her bowl as opposed to communal eating (aOR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.28-0.80, p = 0.005), stunting (aOR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.17-2.88, p = 0.009), malaria parasitaemia (aOR = 3.62, 95% CI: 2.42-5.46, p < 0.001) and mothers' religion (aOR: 2.44, 95% CI: 1.62-3.68, < 0.001). Conclusions The Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality has a high burden of anaemia and malaria parasitaemia in children between one and five years old. Malaria parasitaemia, communal eating, younger age and the mother's religion were significantly associated with worsening anaemia. It is recommended that intermittent antimalarial treatment, routine administration of iron and trace elements, and counselling at well-baby and antenatal clinics on specific predisposing dietary habits be instituted for children under five years of age.

Sly-Moore E, Nguah SB, Mahama H et al.

SurvivalGHRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC1 Jul 2026

Community-Based Interventions for Childhood Undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.

Childhood undernutrition remains a major public health challenge in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite global progress. This review evaluated the effectiveness of community-based interventions for treating undernutrition among children aged 6-59 months in SSA. We systematically searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL from inception to August 2024, without language restrictions. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs evaluating community-based nutrition-specific or nutrition-sensitive interventions were included. Primary outcomes were weight gain, height/length gain, and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). Secondary outcomes were recovery, mortality, and micronutrient status. Forty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Interventions included therapeutic and supplementary feeding, dietary and micronutrient supplementation, disease management, breastfeeding and complementary feeding, and multisectoral approaches. Across the evidence base, nutrition-specific therapeutic feeding interventions, particularly lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS), ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF), and ready-to-use supplementary foods (RUSF), were most consistently associated with improvements in weight gain, MUAC, and recovery. Height gains were observed less consistently, and micronutrient outcomes were infrequently reported. Four comparable studies were eligible for a network meta-analysis (NMA) comparing LNS, corn-soy blend (CSB), and controls. Within this limited evidence network, LNS was associated with greater short-term improvements than controls in weight (+174 g; 95% CI 121-227), height (+0.32 cm; 0.04-0.60), and MUAC (+0.12 cm; 0.05-0.19), and with greater improvements than CSB in weight (+90 g; 29-150) and MUAC (+0.11 cm; 0.06-0.17) (moderate-certainty evidence). Community-based nutrition interventions improve anthropometric outcomes among undernourished children in SSA. Although the NMA suggested a potential benefit of LNS over CSB and controls for short-term anthropometric outcomes, the evidence was limited to four studies. Standardised outcome reporting and longer-term evaluations are needed to strengthen the evidence base and inform context-specific intervention design.

Riwa FP, Jones MA, Rahman KM et al.

SurvivalRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC16 Mar 2026

Assessment of Undernutrition Among Under 5 Children in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background and aim Undernutrition is gradually declining worldwide except in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia. Prevalence is almost stagnant in low-and middle-income countries (LIMCs), contributing to child mortality and disease burden. To systematically review existing literature and conduct a meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of childhood undernutrition-specifically stunting, wasting, and underweight-and identify associated factors among children under five in developing countries. Methods Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, this study systematically reviewed literature from 2010 to 2022 across PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Web of Science on developing countries. Study quality was assessed using JBI scores. Meta-analyses estimated pooled prevalence and factors of undernutrition using the DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed via I² and Cochran's Q. Subgroup analyses by year and continent were performed for undernutrition indicators. Sensitivity analyses showed minimal discrepancies, supporting the robustness of findings. Results We included 157 studies in this research. Pooled prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight was 33% (95% CI: 31-35), 12% (95% CI: 11-13), and 23% (95% CI: 21-25), respectively. Subgroup analysis indicates that Asia had the highest wasting (13%, 95% CI: 11-16) and underweight (27%, 95% CI: 23-31), while Africa had the highest stunting (35%, 95% CI: 33-38. Significant heterogeneity was found across studies and continents (p < 0.05) for each indicator. Male children had 27% (POR:1.27; 95% CI: 1.22-1.32; p < 0.05), 31% (POR:1.31; 95% CI: 1.19-1.43; p = 0.08), and 44% (POR:1.44; 95% CI: 1.18-1.6; p < 0.05) higher odds of being stunted, wasted, and underweight. Rural residence, wealth status, parental education, child age group, mother BMI, breastfeeding, birth order, unprotected water source for drinking and food-insecure household were key undernutrition factors. Conclusion The findings underscore the need for targeted nutritional interventions addressing the identified socioeconomic and healthcare risk factors. Region-specific strategies will be essential to sustainably reduce undernutrition.

Nesa MK, Babu MR, Tasnim S et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC10 Feb 2026

Predicting the effects of temperature variability on nutritional status of children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa using machine learning.

Rising temperatures due to climate change pose significant risks to the nutritional status of under-five children, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study investigates the influence of temperature increases on nutritional status (wasting, stunting, and underweight) in SSA. Based on Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for under-five children and global meteorological reanalysis data, we employed multiple supervised machine learning methods to predict the impact of temperature variability on nutritional status indicators, including stunting, underweight, and wasting, while controlling for socioeconomic variables such as household income and maternal education. Different metrics were used to evaluate the forecasting performance. In addition, multivariable logistic regression was employed to test for the causal-effect relationship. A total of 345,837 participants from 22 SSA countries were analyzed using data from 2005 to 2023. Among the algorithms tested, XG Boost achieved the highest accuracy for underweight prediction (Accuracy = 0.7832), Random Forest for stunting (Accuracy = 0.7023), and logistic regression for wasting (Accuracy = 0.6634). For different countries, accuracies ranging from 0.65 to 0.90, with highest in Uganda (decision tree, Accuracy = 0.9042 for stunting) and lowest in Burundi (XG Boost, Accuracy = 0.6426 for wasting). Causal-effect analysis revealed that each 1 °C rise in average temperature increased the odds of stunting by approximately 1% (OR 1.01, 95% CI: 1.00–1.10), underweight by about 3% (OR 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01–1.06), and wasting by around 10% (OR 1.10, 95% CI: 1.08–1.12). Although the incremental increases per degree appear modest, such temperature-related risks may translate into substantial population-level impacts in climate-vulnerable settings. Higher household income and maternal education were associated with improved nutritional outcomes and attenuated the adverse effects of rising temperatures, indicating a protective socioeconomic effect. Supervised machine learning models can effectively leverage complex datasets to predict the impact of temperature variability on nutritional status, reinforcing the importance of integrated policies and climate-smart agricultural practices for safeguarding the health of under-five children in SSA.

Bachwenkizi J, He C, Zhu Y et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentUGBIRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC2 Dec 2025

Living with mother alone: exploring the risk of stunting among under-five children in India.

Background Stunting affects nearly one in three children under five in India. While socioeconomic, maternal, and environmental factors are well-established determinants, the role of household structure particularly children living with only their mother remains underexplored. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the association between family structure and stunting among children under 5 years of age in India. Specifically, the objective is to compare the risk of stunting among children living with their mothers only to those living with both parents and to identify the key factors contributing to any observed disparities. Data and methods This study analyzed data from 224,218 surviving children aged 0-59 months from the NFHS-5 (2019-21), which is a cross-sectional survey conducted across India and is nationally representative for all key indicators of women and child health. The main outcome of interest stunting was defined as height-for-age Z-score < -2 SD. Children were classified by living arrangement: with both parents or mother alone. Multivariable logistic regression models were sequentially adjusted for child, maternal, household, and community-level factors. Furthermore, Fairlie decomposition analysis quantified the contribution of observed characteristics to stunting disparities. Results A total of 1.35% of children lived with their mother alone, among whom stunting prevalence was significantly higher (39.8%) compared to those with both parents (35.43%). In unadjusted models, child with mother alone was associated with 21% higher odds of stunting (OR: 1.21; 95% CI: 1.12-1.30). However, this association gradually weakened after accounting for confounders in the fully adjusted model (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.97-1.18). Fairlie decomposition (model III) revealed that 70.19% of the stunting gap was attributable to observed factors. Household wealth was the largest contributor (28.29%), followed by maternal height (24.23%) and social caste (13.01%), indicating that structural inequities, rather than the family structure per se, drive the observed disparity. Conclusion The elevated stunting risk among children living with mothers alone is not intrinsic to single-mother households but is largely associated by socioeconomic disadvantage, maternal undernutrition, and systemic inequities. Policies targeting poverty reduction, maternal health, and education are essential to address stunting in vulnerable family settings.

Barik S, Singh A, Singh M

SurvivalDevelopmentINRead at source

OtherEurope PMC9 Sept 2026

From Village Financing to Household Practice: A Multilevel Evaluation of an Integrated Community Health Financing and Capacity-Building Model for Indonesia’s Posyandu Network

Abstract Indonesia’s Posyandu network delivers maternal, child health, and nutrition services through an almost entirely female village-based volunteer community health workers (CHWs/kader), financed by a mix of external programme budgets and discretionary village government co-financing (“cost-sharing”). Whether this financing model produces measurable benefit further along the delivery chain, to CHW capability, facility implementation, and household knowledge and behaviour, has rarely been examined within one linked dataset. We conducted a cross-sectional, multilevel analysis of five monitoring datasets from a programme operating in six Indonesian districts, consisted of village financing records (n = 110 villages), a CHW survey (n = 660), a Posyandu facility dataset (n = 551), a household survey (n = 1,497), and a paired pre/post training assessment (n = 126) from two further districts. Records were linked to village financing via an exact village-code match, with district-level financing used for sensitivity analyses. Programme budget per CHW varied nearly four-fold across districts and was positively associated with cadre tenure (β = 1.18 years per million Rupiah, 95% CI 0.21–2.15, p = 0.018). Training produced a large knowledge gain (median score 12 to 16 of 19; p < 0.001). Posyandu implementation completeness was uniformly high and unrelated to financing. At household level, financing exposure showed no consistent benefit and was linked to lower service utilization in cost-sharing villages, whereas direct household exposure to the programme stunting-education smartchart/“poster pintar” was robustly associated with better knowledge, hygiene practice, service use, and perceived behavioural change. A sub-analysis segregating village financing by MoU contract period (Awal/start vs Akhir/end cohorts) found that per-CHW financing intensity, expressed as monthly and annual rates, varied significantly by when a village’s MoU began or ended, while CHW-level outcomes did not differ significantly between cohorts; a dose-response model exploring the monthly incentive associated with the best CHW outcomes did not identify a statistically confirmed optimum. These findings suggest that sustaining per-cadre financing, continuing structured training, and monitoring whether materials reach households may be more productive levers than financing arrangement or aggregate budget alone.

Harjana NPA, Basuki AD, Miranda AV et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentIDRead at source

Peer-reviewed articleEurope PMC4 Jun 2026

Prenatal and child malaria and child growth: evidence from a Ghanaian pregnancy cohort.

Introduction Additional investigation is needed to better understand the associations between prenatal and early child malaria and early childhood growth outcomes. Methods We leveraged the Ghana Randomized Air Pollution and Health Study which enrolled 1414 pregnant women from Kintampo, Ghana, and followed the mother-child dyads through the child's first year of life. We defined prenatal malaria exposure by histopathological examination of placenta tissue. We defined early child malaria exposure by active health surveillance over the child's first year of life and malaria rapid diagnostic testing when clinically indicated. We employed latent class growth analyses to construct growth trajectories for each anthropometric measure (weight and height and corresponding WHO z-scores, mid-upper arm circumference and head circumference (HC)), which we measured at birth, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age. We then used unadjusted and adjusted ordinal and multinomial regression to identify associations between prenatal and early child malaria growth trajectories, considered separately. Results Of the 1306 live births, 1144 children had prenatal and early child malaria exposure and growth data and were included in the analysis; 250 (21.9%) had prenatal malaria exposure, and 525 (45.9%) had early child malaria infection. Children with prenatal malaria as compared to those without had higher risk for poorer length growth (OR=1.46, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.98; multivariable OR=1.46, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.02), poorer length-for-age z-scores (OR=1.43, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.88; multivariable OR=1.53 95% CI 1.14 to 2.05) and smaller HC (OR=1.56, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.09; multivariable OR=1.43, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.98). Children with early childhood malaria as compared to those without had higher risk for poorer length-for-age z-score (OR=1.13, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.24; multivariable OR=1.12, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.24). Children with prenatal malaria as compared to without showed a trend for persistent stunting (multivariable OR=1.63, 95% CI 0.98 to 2.71). Conclusion Malaria beginning in pregnancy was associated with poorer growth outcomes. Public health preventative strategies beginning in pregnancy may reduce malaria incidence and improve early childhood growth.

Sowole O, Kaali S, Li M et al.

SurvivalDevelopmentGHRead at source

Search the Hub

Every report we find, newest first.

How to use the reports