Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Response to the correspondence referring to our article “Stunting is not a synonym of malnutrition” (2018EJCN0997RR) by Conny Tanjung, Titis Prawitasari, Damayanti Rusli Sjarif

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 74, pages 529–531 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

A Perspective to this article was published on 31 January 2020

The Original Article was published on 27 January 2020

Thank you for the opportunity to answer the correspondence [1] referring to our article, “Stunting is not a synonym of malnutrition” [2].

Stunting defined as height for age <−2SD of the WHO child growth standards, is not a synonym of malnutrition. The lack of association between nutrition and stature has explicitly been described already 100 years ago. In view of thousands of severely starving children shortly after World War I, Schlesinger stated: “The child’s longitudinal growth is largely independent of the extent and nature of the diet… Even during severe dietary restrictions, impairments of infant growth are markedly small, and occur slowly and delayed” [3].

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Tanjung C, Prawitasari T, Sjarif DR. Comments on “Stunting is not a synonym of malnutrition”. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019.

  2. Scheffler C, Hermanussen M, Bogin B, Liana DS, Taolin F, Cempaka PMVP, et al. Stunting is not a synonym of malnutrition. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0439-4.

  3. Hermanussen M, Bogin B, Scheffler C. Stunting, starvation and refeeding: a review of forgotten 19th and early 20th century literature. Acta Paediatr. 2018;107:1166–76.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Pulungan AB, Julia M, Batubara JRL, Hermanussen M. “Indonesian national synthetic growth charts”. Acta Sci Paediatrics. 2018;1:20–34.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Subramanyam MA, Ackerson LK, Subramanian SV. Patterning in birthweight in India: analysis of maternal recall and health card data. PLoS One. 2010;5:e11424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC). A century of trends in adult human height. Elife 2016;5:e13410. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13410.

  7. Hermanussen M, Scheffler C. Stature signals status: the association of stature, status and perceived dominance - a thought experiment. Anthropol Anz 2016;73:265–74. PubMed PMID: 27643683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bogin B, Hermanussen M, Scheffler C. As tall as my peers—similarity in body height between migrants and hosts. Anthropol Anz 2018;74(Jun):365–76.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Koziel S, Zaręba M, Bielicki T, Scheffler C, Hermanussen M. Social mobility of the father influences child growth: A three-generation study. Am J Hum Biol. 2019;31:e23270 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23270.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Keys A, Brozek J, Henschel A, Mickelsen O, Longstreet Taylor H. The biology of human starvation. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press; 1950.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aschauhof, 24340, Altenhof, Germany

    Michael Hermanussen

  2. Human Biology, University of Potsdam, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Christiane Scheffler

  3. Endocrinology Division, Child Health Department, Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia—Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Aman B. Pulungan & Jose R. L. Batubara

  4. Department of Child Health, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

    Madarina Julia

  5. Health and Wellbeing Global Challenge, School of Sport, Exercise & Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK

    Barry Bogin

Authors
  1. Michael Hermanussen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christiane Scheffler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Aman B. Pulungan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jose R. L. Batubara
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Madarina Julia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Barry Bogin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Hermanussen.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hermanussen, M., Scheffler, C., Pulungan, A.B. et al. Response to the correspondence referring to our article “Stunting is not a synonym of malnutrition” (2018EJCN0997RR) by Conny Tanjung, Titis Prawitasari, Damayanti Rusli Sjarif. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 529–531 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0571-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0571-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links