Background: The Global Nutrition Target of reducing low birthweight (LBW) by ≥30% between 2012 and 2025 has led to renewed interest in producing accurate, population-based, national LBW estimates. Low- and middle-income countries rely on household surveys for birthweight data. These data are frequently incomplete and exhibit strong "heaping.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Low birthweight (LBW) of less than 2500 g is an important marker of maternal and fetal health, predicting mortality, stunting, and adult-onset chronic conditions. Global nutrition targets set at the World Health Assembly in 2012 include an ambitious 30% reduction in LBW prevalence between 2012 and 2025. Estimates to track progress towards this target are lacking; with this analysis, we aim to assist in setting a baseline against which to assess progress towards the achievement of the World Health Assembly targets.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge-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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In sub-Saharan Africa, ~ 40% of children <5 y old are stunted, with levels that have remained largely unchanged over the past 2 decades. Although the complex determinants of undernutrition are well recognized, few studies have evaluated strategies that combine nutrition-specific, health-based approaches with food system- and livelihood-based interventions.
Objective: We examined changes in childhood stunting and its determinants after 3 y of exposure to an integrated, multisector intervention and compared these changes with national trends.