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. 2023 Aug 6;15(15):3478.
doi: 10.3390/nu15153478.

Cultural and Contextual Drivers of Triple Burden of Malnutrition among Children in India

Shri Kant Singh  1 , Alka Chauhan  2 , Santosh Kumar Sharma  3 , Parul Puri  3 , Sarang Pedgaonkar  1 , Laxmi Kant Dwivedi  1 , Lindsey Smith Taillie  4
Affiliations

Cultural and Contextual Drivers of Triple Burden of Malnutrition among Children in India

Shri Kant Singh et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

This study examines malnutrition's triple burden, including anaemia, overweight, and stunting, among children aged 6-59 months. Using data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2021), the study identifies risk factors and assesses their contribution at different levels to existing malnutrition burden. A random intercept multilevel logistic regression model and spatial analysis are employed to identify child, maternal, and household level risk factors for stunting, overweight, and anaemia. The study finds that 34% of children were stunted, 4% were overweight, and 66% were anaemic. Stunting and anaemia prevalence were higher in central and eastern regions, while overweight was more prevalent in the north-eastern and northern regions. At the macro-level, the coexistence of stunting, overweight, and anaemia circumstantiates the triple burden of childhood malnutrition with substantial spatial variation (Moran's I: stunting-0.53, overweight-0.41, and anaemia-0.53). Multilevel analysis reveals that child, maternal, and household variables play a substantial role in determining malnutrition burden in India. The nutritional health is significantly influenced by a wide range of determinants, necessitating multilevel treatments targeting households to address this diverse group of coexisting factors. Given the intra-country spatial heterogeneity, the treatment also needs to be tailor-made for various disaggregated levels.

Keywords: India; anaemia; children; malnutrition; overweight; stunting.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patterns of stunting, overweight and anaemia among children under 6–59 months across 707 districts in India, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–2021.
Figure 2
Figure 2
District distribution of the rates of malnutrition (A) stunting, (B) overweight, and (C) anaemia among children under 6–59 months across 707 districts in India, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–2021.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Univariate LISA clustering of (A) stunting, (B) overweight, and (C) anaemia among children aged 6–59 months across 707 districts in India, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019–2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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