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:	Body Height Child Developing Countries Growth Growth Disorders Health Status Disparities Humans Malnutrition Prevalence Reference Values Socioeconomic Factors Thinness World Health Organization
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

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

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