Stunting later in childhood and outcomes as a young adult: Evidence from India

Abstract

This paper looks at patterns of growth faltering and catch up of around 1000 children as they moved from 8 to 19 years of age, from middle childhood through adolescence to young adulthood, using Height for Age Difference (HAD) and the more conventional Height for age z-scores (HAZ). It also looks at what individual and household characteristics may have moved these children into or out of situations of nutritional deprivation and how their stunting profile in later childhood correlates with psychosocial outcomes at age 19 and how it may have intergenerational consequences. The paper uses 4 rounds of longitudinal data collected in 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2013 from Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, India when the children were aged 8, 12, 15 and 19. The paper finds that there are significant gender based biases in growth faltering later in childhood disfavouring girls and that becoming newly stunted as an adolescent is strongly correlated with a child reporting to have poorer relationships with peers compared to the group that were never stunted. We also find that a girl experiencing stunting in middle childhood or adolescence (even if they were not stunted at age 8 or eventually moved out of being stunted by age 19) correlates significantly with offspring being shorter and thinner than the offspring of girls never stunted. This is one of few, if any, studies that look at growth patterns in middle childhood and adolescence and outcomes as a young adult and the results are important for their implications for further research and policy.

Gangguan Perkembangan Motorik Dan Kognitif pada Anak Toodler yang Mengalami Stunting di Wilayah Pesisir Surabaya

“…Secara global, pada tahun 2010 prevalensi anak pendek sebesar 171 juta anak di mana 167 juta kejadian terjadi di negara berkembang (4). Stunting mempengaruhi sekitar seperempat sampai setengah anak di Negara berkembang karena kemiskinan, kekurangan gizi dan beban penyakit (6).…”

Nutritional Status from 1 to 15 Years and Adolescent Learning for Boys and Girls in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam

“…In the Indian context, there is extensive evidence of son preference in nutritional investments (Jayachandran 2015): boys (and especially first-borns) are breastfed for longer (Jayachandran and Kuziemko 2011), and their dietary quality is generally higher, particularly in adolescence (Aurino 2016). Consistent with this evidence of a proboy bias in the allocation of food and health inputs, using the Young Lives data, Himaz (2018) shows that Indian girls are more likely than boys to become stunted after age 8 years. With regard to Peru, the literature on gender and age differences in the intrahousehold food allocation is much more limited (and in Latin American countries more generally), with mixed findings related to discrimination against girls.…”

Tracing the Consequences of Child Poverty

“…Rates of recovery and faltering may vary between boys and girls. For instance, among the Older Cohort in United Andhra Pradesh, faltering in growth between ages 8 and 19 is far more likely among girls than boys (Himaz, 2018). In terms of the interactions between growth and wider wellbeing and resilience, becoming stunted as an adolescent is strongly correlated with reporting poorer relationships with peers compared with those never stunted, possibly due to bullying.…”

“…There is also a significant correlation between stunting among adolescent girls and reduced height and weight in their offspring, as compared with the offspring of girls whose physical development was normal. This applies even when the young mothers were not stunted at age 8 or had recovered their growth by age 19 (Himaz, 2018). In other words, the persistence of negative developmental cascades through adolescence greatly increases the likelihood of inter-generational transmission of disadvantage, this being a motive for focusing investment on the development and wellbeing of adolescent girls.…”