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. 2025 Mar 28;17(7):1185.
doi: 10.3390/nu17071185.

Global, Regional, and National Burden of Child Growth Failure, 1990-2021: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Kelly Lin  1   2   3 , Nicholas Buys  3 , Jun Zhou  4 , Yanfei Qi  5 , Jing Sun  1   3   6
Affiliations

Global, Regional, and National Burden of Child Growth Failure, 1990-2021: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Kelly Lin et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Child growth failure is a manifestation of chronic malnutrition expressed in stunting, wasting, and underweight in children. This study aimed to analyze global trends in child growth failure disease burden and mortality across children of all age groups on a global, regional, and national level. Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized data from the 1990 and 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Growth failure Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), years lived with a disability (YLDs), and mortality in children under 20 years of age were analyzed. Average annual percentage change (AAPC) was calculated to determine and identify improvements in growth failure disease burden and mortality in the past 30 years. Results: Greatest reduction in growth failure DALYs (AAPC = -0.96, 95% CI = -0.97 to -0.95), YLDs (AAPC = -0.73, 95% CI = -0.77 to -0.66) and mortality rate (AAPC = -0.96, 95% CI = -0.97 to -0.95) in children under 5 years of age was observed in high-middle SDI countries. In contrast, improvements in the number of growth failure DALYs (AAPC = -0.64, 95% CI = -0.76 to -0.53), YLDs (AAPC = -0.21, 95% CI = -0.25 to -0.13) and mortalities (-0.57, 95% CI = -0.59 to -0.52) are less pronounced in regions with low SDI scores. Improvements in disease burden and mortality are reduced in older age groups, with the lowest reduction observed in children 15-19 years old. Conclusions: Barriers hindering the delivery of nutritional supplements and access to quality healthcare in regions with low SDI scores need to be overcome to address the disproportionately high numbers of growth failure DALYs, YLDs, and mortalities in regions with low SDI.

Keywords: chronic malnutrition; growth failure; stunting; wasting.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age-standardized rate (ASR) of global growth failure (A) DALYs, (B) mortalities, (C) YLDs. ASR = age-standardized rate.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Regional 1990 to 2021 growth failure AAPC (A) DALYs, (B) mortalities, and (C) YLDs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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