Growth faltering and recovery in children aged 1–8 years in four low- and middle-income countries: Young Lives
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Objective: We characterized post-infancy child growth patterns and determined the incidence of becoming stunted and of recovery from stunting. Design: Data came from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of childhood poverty in four low- and middle-income countries. Setting: We analysed length/height measurements for children at ages 1, 5 and 8 years. Subjects: Children ( n 7171) in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. Results: Mean height-for-age Z -score (HAZ) at age 1 year ranged from −1·51 (Ethiopia) to −1·08 (Vietnam). From age 1 to 5 years, mean HAZ increased by 0·27 in Ethiopia ( P < 0·001) and decreased among the other cohorts (range: −0·19 (Peru) to −0·32 (India); all P < 0·001). From 5 to 8 years, mean HAZ increased in all cohorts (range: 0·19 (India) to 0·38 (Peru); all P < 0·001). Prevalence of stunting (HAZ<−2·0) at 1 year ranged from 21 % (Vietnam) to 46 % (Ethiopia). From age 1 to 5 years, stunting prevalence decreased by 15·1 percentage points in Ethiopia ( P < 0·001) and increased in the other cohorts (range: 3·0 percentage points (Vietnam) to 5·3 percentage points (India); all P ≤ 0·001). From 5 to 8 years, stunting prevalence decreased in all cohorts (range: 5·0 percentage points (Vietnam) to 12·7 percentage points (Peru); all P < 0·001). The incidence of becoming stunted between ages 1 to 5 years ranged from 11 % (Vietnam) to 22 % (India); between ages 5 to 8 years, it ranged from 3 % (Peru) to 6 % (India and Ethiopia). The incidence of recovery from stunting between ages 1 and 5 years ranged from 27 % (Vietnam) to 53 % (Ethiopia); between ages 5 and 8 years, it ranged from 30 % (India) to 47 % (Ethiopia). Conclusions: We found substantial recovery from early stunting among children in four low- and middle-income countries.
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Adolescence is a time for catch-up growth.
“Adolescence is a time for catch-up growth; the extent to which pubertal growth can contribute to stunting recovery at this time is under much investigation, but studies of children who migrated or were adopted may offer more insight into later linear growth increases.3,82,83”
From Nutrition in adolescents: physiology, metabolism, and nutritional needs (2017) · cites this paper as [82]
The Discussion reports catch-up growth during the pre-school and early school-age years, and the study measured children at ages 1, 5 and 8. It supports the possibility of catch-up growth after infancy, but does not establish adolescence as a time for it. (LLM, conf=0.85)
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- Authors
- Lundeen, E. A., Behrman, J. R., Crookston, B. T., Dearden, K. A., Engle, P., Georgiadis, A., Penny, M. E., & Stein, A. D.
- Affiliations
- Emory University (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Brigham Young University (US)
- Boston University (US)
- California Polytechnic State University (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stein, Aryeh D
- ORCID
- Venue
- Public Health Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2013-11-15
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 2131-2137
- ISSN
- 1368-9800 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2727
- PMC
- PMC4043952
- OpenAlex
- W2098553340
- Semantic Scholar
- 4f7a378a7d5d43bfc72d46d113901acb7e418a6c
- Cited by
- 123
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 10
- FWCI
- 9.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Public Health Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1032713)
- University of Pennsylvania
- Department for International Development
- Grand Challenges Canada (Grant 0072-03, 0072-03)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (T32DK007734)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD070993)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Child Nutrition and Water Access
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Public Health and Nutrition
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
- Keywords
- child growth faltering, stunting, height-for-age, child poverty, low- and middle-income countries, Ethiopia, India, Peru, Vietnam, Young Lives
- MeSH terms
- Body Height, Child, Child Development, Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Child, Preschool, Ethiopia, Female, Growth Disorders, Humans, India, Infant, Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Peru, Poverty Areas, Vietnam, Cohort Studies, Incidence, Prevalence, Malnutrition
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