Stunting and Wasting Among Indian Preschoolers have Moderate but Significant Associations with the Vegetarian Status of their Mothers

Abstract

Background: India has high rates of child undernutrition and widespread lactovegetarianism.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine how nutrition outcomes varied among Indian preschool children in relation to the vegetarian status of their parents.

Methods: The 2015-2016 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and the 2011-2012 National Sample Survey (NSS) were used to explore associations between parental vegetarian status and child stunting and wasting at ages 0-59 mo and anemia at ages 6-59 mo. In the NFHS, self-reports on usual consumption of foods were used to classify maternal diets, whereas in the NSS lactovegetarianism was defined at the household level.

Results: Compared with children of nonvegetarian mothers, children aged 24-59 mo of lactovegetarian mothers were 2.9 percentage points (95% CI: -4.0, -1.9) less likely to be stunted and children aged 6-23 mo were 1.6 points less likely to be wasted (95% CI: -3.0, -0.03), whereas children aged 6-23 mo with vegan mothers were 5.2 points more likely to be stunted (95% CI: 0.1, 9.4). When compared with nonvegetarian households, lactovegetarian households had better socioeconomic status and were more likely to consume dairy frequently. Children in nonvegetarian households consumed nondairy animal-sourced foods (ASFs) with relatively low frequency. The frequency of maternal dairy consumption was significantly associated with lower risks of child stunting and wasting.

Conclusions: Anthropometric outcomes differed by maternal vegetarian status, which is itself strongly associated with socioeconomic position, location, religion, and caste.

Keywords: Stunting; anemia; dairy; vegetarianism; wasting.

FIGURE 1

A conceptual framework for evaluating the associations between maternal vegetarian status and child nutrition outcomes. Source: authors’ construction. The dotted line pathway reflects our principal hypothesis that maternal vegetarianism is associated with child nutrition because of differences in child dietary quality between vegetarian and nonvegetarian households. WASH, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

FIGURE 2

A map of the prevalence of lactovegetarianism among Indian mothers. Note: the prevalence of lactovegetarianism among Indian mothers by state. Estimated from the 2015–2016 NFHS using the women's survey weights. LVG, lactovegetarianism.

FIGURE 3

Adjusted regression-based estimates of the percentage differences in per capita availability of foods (panel A) and nutrients (panel B) between lactovegetarian and nonvegetarian households (n = 100,855 households). Panel A: percentage differences in the per capita availability of foods at the household level. Panel B: differences in the per capita availability of nutrients at the household level. Notes: the graphs above denote an approximation of the percentage difference between per capita supply of different foods and nutrients at the household level based on least squares regressions of the log of each food (grams) and nutrient (various units) against dummy variables for household vegetarian status, after adjusting for household characteristics. Each estimate is the result of an individual regression of each food/nutrient after applying the inverse hyperbolic sine transformation to derive an approximation of percentage differences. See Supplemental Table S2 for details of the various control variables used in these regressions.