Across the world, about one million children under five years of age died in 2023 due to ‘child growth failure’, with Nigeria recording the highest number of such deaths and India being a close second, says a new study.
‘Child growth failure’, which includes health issues such as low weight, stunted growth or wasting, increases the risks of death and disability from several diseases, including lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and measles.
According to the study, which was published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal show, Nigeria recorded the highest number of under-five deaths linked to ‘child growth failure’ at 188,000, India recorded 100,000 such deaths and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked third with more than 50,000 deaths.
The analysis done by the US-based University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 – the latest in the series of assessments that measures health lost due to diseases, injuries and risk factors across 204 countries and territories.
“The drivers behind child growth failure are complex and cumulative due to feeding issues, food insecurity, climate change, lack of sanitation, or war,” said co-author Bobby Reiner, professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
“Therefore, no single strategy will improve their health across all regions,” he added.
The authors estimated that “in children younger than five years in 2023, CGF (child growth failure) was associated with 79.4 million DALYs lost (disability-adjusted life years lost) and 880,000 deaths.”
Being underweight accounted for 12 per cent of deaths in this age group, the highest share, followed by wasting (a form of malnutrition) at nine per cent and stunting at eight per cent.
Meanwhile, 79 per cent of diarrhoeal disease deaths and 53 per cent of lower respiratory infection deaths among under-fives in South Asia were linked to child growth failure.
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Over the years, deaths due to factors affecting child growth declined globally from 2.75 million in 2000 to 0.8 million in 2023.
However, sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia continue to see substantial and concentrated adverse health effects with more than 600,000 and 165,000 deaths among under-fives, respectively, the researchers estimated.
Only the high-income region in South Asia recorded the lowest number of deaths related to growth failure, and also the lowest fraction of deaths from wasting and stunting at about 33 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.
The researchers said that most stunted infants show signs of growth failure within the first three months of life, which is also the time when interventions before and during pregnancy can help.
It’s important to improve child healthcare in these nations because stunting and wasting can occur in a loop, with stunting increasing the risk of future wasting and vice versa, and the cycle worsening as children grow older, they said.
Newborns born too small or too early is a sign of growth failure in the first few months of life, while in older infancy and early childhood, it may point to other drivers of poor growth like inadequate nutrition, repeated infection or other causes, the team said.
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