What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has recently established revised child growth standards. OBJECTIVE: To assess how the use of these new standards affects the estimated prevalence and socioeconomic distribution of stunting and underweight among children in a large number of low- and middle-i...

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Main Authors: Ergo, A., Gwatkin, D. R., Shekar, M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5078
id okr-10986-5078
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-50782021-04-23T14:02:20Z What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition? Ergo, A. Gwatkin, D. R. Shekar, M. Body Height Child Developing Countries Growth Growth Disorders Health Status Disparities Humans Malnutrition Prevalence Reference Values Socioeconomic Factors Thinness World Health Organization BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has recently established revised child growth standards. OBJECTIVE: To assess how the use of these new standards affects the estimated prevalence and socioeconomic distribution of stunting and underweight among children in a large number of low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: We analyzed Demographic and Health Survey data for stunting and underweight in 41 low- and middle-income countries employing these new standards and compared the results with those produced by analyses of the same data using the old growth references. RESULTS: For all 41 countries, the prevalence of stunting increases with the adoption of the new standards, by 5.4 percentage points on average (95% CI: 5.1, 5.7). The prevalence of underweight decreases in all but two of the countries, by an average of 2.9 percentage points (95% CI: 2.7, 3.2). The impact of using the new standards on socioeconomic inequalities is mixed. For stunting, inequalities tend to rise in absolute terms but tend to decline in relative terms. The impact on underweight is inconsistent across countries. Poor children suffer most from undernutrition, but even among the better-off children in developing countries, undernutrition rates are high enough to deserve attention. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the adoption of the new WHO standards in itself is unlikely to affect policies dramatically. They do confirm, however, that different strategies are likely to be required in these countries to effectively address undernutrition among children at different socioeconomic levels. 2012-03-30T07:31:10Z 2012-03-30T07:31:10Z 2009 Journal Article Food Nutr Bull 0379-5721 (Print) 0379-5721 (Linking) http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5078 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Body Height
Child
Developing Countries
Growth
Growth Disorders
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Malnutrition
Prevalence
Reference Values
Socioeconomic Factors
Thinness
World Health Organization
spellingShingle Body Height
Child
Developing Countries
Growth
Growth Disorders
Health Status Disparities
Humans
Malnutrition
Prevalence
Reference Values
Socioeconomic Factors
Thinness
World Health Organization
Ergo, A.
Gwatkin, D. R.
Shekar, M.
What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
relation http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has recently established revised child growth standards. OBJECTIVE: To assess how the use of these new standards affects the estimated prevalence and socioeconomic distribution of stunting and underweight among children in a large number of low- and middle-income countries. METHODS: We analyzed Demographic and Health Survey data for stunting and underweight in 41 low- and middle-income countries employing these new standards and compared the results with those produced by analyses of the same data using the old growth references. RESULTS: For all 41 countries, the prevalence of stunting increases with the adoption of the new standards, by 5.4 percentage points on average (95% CI: 5.1, 5.7). The prevalence of underweight decreases in all but two of the countries, by an average of 2.9 percentage points (95% CI: 2.7, 3.2). The impact of using the new standards on socioeconomic inequalities is mixed. For stunting, inequalities tend to rise in absolute terms but tend to decline in relative terms. The impact on underweight is inconsistent across countries. Poor children suffer most from undernutrition, but even among the better-off children in developing countries, undernutrition rates are high enough to deserve attention. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the adoption of the new WHO standards in itself is unlikely to affect policies dramatically. They do confirm, however, that different strategies are likely to be required in these countries to effectively address undernutrition among children at different socioeconomic levels.
format Journal Article
author Ergo, A.
Gwatkin, D. R.
Shekar, M.
author_facet Ergo, A.
Gwatkin, D. R.
Shekar, M.
author_sort Ergo, A.
title What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
title_short What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
title_full What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
title_fullStr What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
title_full_unstemmed What Difference Do the New WHO Child Growth Standards Make for the Prevalence and Socioeconomic Distribution of Undernutrition?
title_sort what difference do the new who child growth standards make for the prevalence and socioeconomic distribution of undernutrition?
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5078
_version_ 1764393855486001152