Open AccessDiet quality and risk of stunting among infants and young children in low‐ and middle‐income countries
Author(s) -
Krasevec Julia,
An Xiaoyi,
Kumapley Richard,
Bégin France,
Frongillo Edward A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
maternal and child nutrition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1740-8709
pISSN - 1740-8695
DOI - 10.1111/mcn.12430
Subject(s) - medicine , dietary diversity , logistic regression , environmental health , demography , odds ratio , odds , consumption (sociology) , nutrition transition , population , low and middle income countries , food group , developing country , food security , body mass index , geography , biology , agriculture , ecology , social science , archaeology , pathology , overweight , sociology
Age‐appropriate complementary feeding practices are far from optimal among low‐ and middle‐income countries with available data. The evidence on the association between feeding practices and linear growth is mixed. We sought to systematically examine the association between two indictors of dietary quality—dietary diversity and animal source food (ASF) consumption (WHO, 2008)—and stunting (length‐for‐age z‐score) employing existing data from 39 Demographic and Health Surveys. Data on 74,548 children aged 6–23 months were pooled and multiple logistic regression models, adjusting for child, maternal, and household characteristics, employed to assess the association between dietary quality and stunting. Stratified models by child age and by World Bank country‐income classifications (World Bank, 2015) were also applied. Children aged 6–23 months consuming zero food groups in the previous day had a 1.345 higher odds of being stunted when compared to the reference group (≥5 food groups); those who did not consume any ASF in the previous day had a 1.436 higher odds of being stunted compared to children consuming all three types of ASF (egg, meat, and dairy). We estimated that 2,629 cases of stunting would have been averted (12.6% of those stunted) among the population studied if all children had consumed five or more food groups. Outcomes by country‐income groupings showed larger associations of diet diversity and ASF consumption for upper‐ and lower‐middle income countries compared to low‐income countries. In summary, dietary diversity and ASF consumption were associated with stunting, with associations varying by stratified groups.