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Review

Levels and Trends in Low Height-for-Age

Gretchen A Stevens, Mariel M Finucane, Christopher J Paciorek
Robert E Black, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Marleen Temmerman, Neff Walker
, editors.
In: Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health: Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 2). Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2016 Apr 5. Chapter 5.
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Review

Levels and Trends in Low Height-for-Age

Gretchen A Stevens et al.
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Excerpt

Children’s nutritional status influences their survival, cognitive development, and lifelong health (Adair and others 2013; Black and others 2013; Grantham-McGregor and others 2007; Olofin and others 2013). Inadequate nutrition, together with infections, results in restricted linear growth. Stunting, or low height-for-age, is an indicator of overall nutritional status (Black and others 2013; WHO 2013) and an important cause of morbidity and mortality in infants and children (Black and others 2013; Olofin and others 2013).

Stunting caused an estimated 14 percent to 17 percent of mortality in children under age five years in 2011, accounting for 1.0 million to 1.2 million deaths (Black and others 2013). The World Health Assembly endorsed the target of reducing the number of children with stunting by 40 percent by 2025, compared with the 2010 baseline (World Health Assembly 2012). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rates of stunting reduction need to be accelerated to meet this target (World Health Assembly 2012).

Country-level information on trends in child height-for-age is needed for priority setting, planning, and program evaluation. Stunting estimates are made at the regional level for all world regions by UNICEF, WHO, and World Bank (2012, 2014). This chapter presents a set of country-level estimates by the Nutrition Impact Model Study (NIMS) for 1985–2011 (Stevens and others 2012). The NIMS collaboration estimates trends in the complete distributions of child height-for-age by country, including stunting prevalence. Paciorek and others (2013) extend this body of work to separately estimate children’s height-for-age distribution in urban and rural areas, by country and year. Separate estimates for urban and rural areas allow strategies that target children in each setting to be prioritized.

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