Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Nov 26:11:182.
doi: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_18_19. eCollection 2020.

Comparison of the Prevalence and Trend of Malnutrition between 0-6 Years and 7-11 Years Old Iranian Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Fatemeh Azizi-Soleiman  1 , Hamid Sharifi  2 , Maryam Zamanian  3
Affiliations
Review

Comparison of the Prevalence and Trend of Malnutrition between 0-6 Years and 7-11 Years Old Iranian Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Fatemeh Azizi-Soleiman et al. Int J Prev Med. .

Abstract

Background: To plan for decreasing the prevalence of malnutrition among children, reliable data of current status are required. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to estimate the prevalence and trend of malnutrition among Iranian children.

Methods: PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Iranian databases including SID and Magiran were searched for studies published prior to October 2017 with MeSH terms of Malnutrition, Nutrition Disorders, Wasting, Stunting, Underweight, Undernutrition, Nutrition, Anthropometry, Weight, and Children and Iran. Three random effect models were applied to estimate the pooled prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting. Meta-regression and cumulative meta-analysis were performed. All analyses were also conducted separately for two different age groups including 0-6 years old (preschool) and 7-11 years old (primary school). Seventy-five studies (information of 1,069,815 individuals) were included in the final meta-analysis.

Results: The overall prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting was estimated to be 8.4% [95% confidence interval (CI): 7.6-9.1], 14.5% (95% CI: 13.1-15.9) and 5.6% (95% CI: 5-6.2) in children age 0-6 years, and 6.6% (95% CI: 4.8-8.4), 7.3% (95% CI: 5.6-9.1), and 8.3% (95% CI: 6-10.7) in children age 7-11 years, respectively.

Conclusions: The cumulative meta-analysis showed a decrease in the general trend of malnutrition in both preschool and primary school children of Iran. Stunting and wasting were the most common form of malnutrition in Iranian preschool and primary school children, respectively. The decreasing trend of malnutrition was much more noticeable about stunting.

Keywords: Child; Iran; growth disorders; malnutrition; stunting; underweight; wasting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection process based on PRISMA 2009 flow diagram
Figure 2a
Figure 2a
Forest plot of the prevalence of underweight in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 2b
Figure 2b
Forest plot of the prevalence of underweight in 7–11 years old Iranian children
Figure 2c
Figure 2c
Forest plot of the prevalence of stunting in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 2d
Figure 2d
Forest plot of the prevalence of stunting in 7–11 years old Iranian children
Figure 2e
Figure 2e
Forest plot of the prevalence of wasting in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 2f
Figure 2f
Forest plot of the prevalence of wasting in 7–11 years old Iranian children
Figure 3
Figure 3
The prevalence of malnutrition in 0–6 years old Iranian children compared with 7–11 years old children. WAZ = Weight for age, HAZ = Height for age, WHZ = Weight for height
Figure 4a
Figure 4a
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of underweight in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 4b
Figure 4b
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of underweight in 7–11 years old Iranian children
Figure 4c
Figure 4c
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of stunting in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 4d
Figure 4d
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of stunting in 7–11 years old Iranian children
Figure 4e
Figure 4e
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of wasting in 0–6 years old Iranian children
Figure 4f
Figure 4f
Cumulative meta-analyses of the prevalence of wasting in 7–11 years old Iranian children
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. World Health Organization (WHO) UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Group Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates. [Last accessed on 2019 Jan 01]. Available from: https://wwwwhoint/nutgrowthdb/2018-jme-brochurepdfua=1 .
    1. Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, et al. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet. 2013;382:427–51. - PubMed
    1. Martins VJ, Toledo Florêncio TM, Grillo LP, do Carmo P, Franco M, Martins PA, et al. Long-lasting effects of undernutrition. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2011;8:1817–46. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mahan LK, Raymond JL, Escott-Stump S. Krause's Food & the Nutrition Care Process – E-Book: Elsevier Health Sciences. 2013
    1. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) UNCsF Global Nutrition Report. [[Last accessed on 2018 Apr 01]]. Available from: https://datauniceforg/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/130565-1pdf .