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Nutritional status of infants and young children in India across three decades: Analysis of five national family health surveys

Abstract

Background

Three indicators of early childhood undernutrition and associated factors are evaluated among under-5 children in five National Family Health Surveys in India spanning 1992 to 2021.

Methods

Data for 533,495 children under 5 years of age (U–5) were analysed in the context of three commonly used indicators of early childhood undernutrition – wasting, stunting and underweight. In addition to descriptive and inferential statistics, binary logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of specific explanatory factors on the three indicators using adjusted odds ratios.

Results

Over the three-decade interval, stunting was reduced by 22.1% in boys and 20.9% in girls, followed by underweight, 19.3% in boys and 17.4% in girls; wasting, in contrast, was reduced to a considerably lesser extent, 2.8% in boys and 0.9% in girls. Demographic, maternal and socioeconomic factors were associated with the incidence of early childhood undernutrition, specifically among young mothers and those with less education in low-income families, and among children from Scheduled Tribes or Scheduled Castes. Stunting and underweight declined significantly over the past three decades while wasting changed negligibly. The disparity in the occurrence of early childhood undernutrition was apparent throughout socioeconomic categories and regions of India.

Conclusions

The results highlight the need for special programs aimed at reducing waste among children and also the need for customized initiatives focused on the improvement of maternal education and wealth in addition to other ancillary factors related to regional variation.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: Undernutrition trends.
Fig. 3: Rate map showing changes in wasting, stunting and underweight from NFHS-1 through NFHS-5 by regions.

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Data availability

The NFHS datasets are available at https://dhsprogram.com/Data/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for providing data. This study had no grant, technical or corporate support.

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PB conceived the presented idea. RNK, PB designed methodology. RNK was involved in data curation and performed the analysis. RNK, PB, and RKG were involved in data interpretation. RNK and AC drafted the manuscript. RKG and PB verified the analytical methods. GL and RMM contributed to the interpretation of the statistical analysis. PB, RKG, GL, and RMM critically reviewed and edited the manuscript. RNK, RKG, GL, and RMM finalized the manuscript. PB supervised the study. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Grażyna Liczbińska.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) provided data for this study, which are available in the public domain. The DHS survey methodology and participant confidentiality were evaluated and approved by the ICF Institutional Review Board (IRB). Regarding the confidentiality of participants and the protection of human subjects, the ICF IRB abides by the standards set forth by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The DHS also obtained consent from the guardian of each participant. The use of the DHS data did not require additional ethical approval because it was already ethically approved.

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Kundu, R.N., Gautam, R.K., Chatterjee, A. et al. Nutritional status of infants and young children in India across three decades: Analysis of five national family health surveys. Eur J Clin Nutr (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-024-01427-7

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