BACKGROUND Child malnutrition remains widespread in many developing countries. Malnutrition during infancy may substantially increase vulnerability to infection and disease, and the risk of premature death. Malnutrition in children may also lead to permanent effects and to their having diminished health capital later in life as adults. These negative consequences of child malnutrition entail th...

BACKGROUND Malnutrition is a major public health and development concern in the developing world and in poor communities within these regions. Understanding the nature and determinants of socioeconomic inequality in malnutrition is essential in contemplating the health of populations in developing countries and in targeting resources appropriately to raise the health of the poor and most vulner...

In 2020, the size and severity of world's food crises reached a new peak in global hunger surge that started 5 years ago. The Global Report on Food Crises, released May 5, found 155 million people were acutely insecure need urgent assistance representing an increase 20 since 2019. Children facing these are especially vulnerable to wasting stunting. 2021 child malnutrition estimates from UNICEF,...

Chronic child undernutrition is a persistent problem in developing countries and has been the focus of hundreds of studies where the primary intent is to improve targeting of public health and economic development policies. In national level cross-sectional studies undernutrition is measured as child stunting and the goal is to assess differences in prevalence among population subgroups. Severa...

The deteriorating trend of malnutrition among under-five children (U5C) seen throughout the 1990s has changed. As shown below, preliminary figures from a UNICEF-supported survey carried out in February 2002 show that acute and general malnutrition are now less than half the levels of 1996, while chronic malnutrition has fallen by nearly 30% during the same period (Fig. 1). This decline should b...

At current rates of progress, sub-Saharan Africa will not achieve any of the millennium development goals. In health, the situation is especially bleak, with little or no substantive progress since 1990. All key health indicators are at much worse levels than those in any other of the world’s developing regions (with the exception of malnutrition in children under 5 in South Asia, but there the...

This paper examines levels and trends of urban-rural differentials in child malnutrition, and investigates whether residual differences exist between urban and rural areas, given comparable measures of socioeconomic status (SES) of households and communities. Using data from Demographic and Health Surveys of 15 sub-Saharan African countries, and multilevel modelling, it shows that urban-rural d...