Micronutrient Deficiencies and Stunting Were Associated with Socioeconomic Status in Indonesian Children Aged 6–59 Months

Abstract

Micronutrient deficiencies and stunting are known as a significant problem in most developing countries, including Indonesia. The objective of this study was to analyze the association between micronutrient deficiencies and stunting with socioeconomic status (SES) among Indonesian children aged 6–59 months. This cross-sectional study was part of the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS). A total of 1008 Indonesian children were included in the study. Anemia, iron deficiency, vitamin A deficiency, vitamin D deficiency, and stunting were identified in this study. Structured questionnaires were used to measure SES. Differences between micronutrient parameters and anthropometric indicators with the SES groups were tested using one-way ANOVA with post-hoc test after adjusted for age, area resident (rural and urban), and sex. The highest prevalence of anemia, stunting, and severe stunting were found to be most significant in the lowest SES group at 45.6%, 29.3%, and 54.5%, respectively. Children from the lowest SES group had significantly lower means of Hb, ferritin, retinol, and HAZ. Severely stunted children had a significantly lower mean of Hb concentration compared to stunted and normal height children. Micronutrient deficiencies, except vitamin D, and stunting, were associated with low SES among Indonesian children aged 6–59 months.

Adequate Vitamin A Levels with Stunting Adolescents of Minangkabau Ethnicity in Indonesia: A Case-Control Study

“…A previous study found that taking Vitamin A supplements is related to a considerable increase in adolescent development [7]. Vitamin A supplementation, according to this study, may help to avoid stunting.…”

“…Stunting can be influenced by a lack of Vitamin A in the diet [5]. Then, Vitamin A is involved in a variety of physiological activities in the body, including eyesight, cell differentiation, acquaintance, growth and development, reproduction, cancer and heart disease prevention, and hunger suppression [7].…”

Gender-specific association between serum ferritin and neurodevelopment in infants aged 6 to 12 months

“…It is generally believed that the differences in iron status between males and females arise after adolescence 7 , 8 . Some studies have reported substantial sex differences in serum ferritin levels in infants and pre-pubertal children 9 – 11 . Serum ferritin levels differ significantly according to sex, suggesting a sex-dependent relationship for ferritin and neurodevelopmental function risk.…”

Vitamin D deficiency is a public health emergency among Indonesian children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence

“…We also found 14 articles from citations and hand searching, which resulted in an additional manuscript (15) . Notable exclusions include one study which did not specify the vitamin D cut-off value (34) , one study that included Dutch residents of Indonesian ethnicity (35) , two studies (36,37) that were generated from the same dataset (38) , one poster presentation (39) that were ultimately published as a full A c c e p t e d A r t i c l e paper (40) , and five studies (41)(42)(43)(44)(45) were also excluded as they were part of Southeast Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) study (15) . Therefore, seven studies (15,38,40,(46)(47)(48)(49) are available for systematic review and meta-analysis (Supplementary Figure 1).…”