36% of Children Under 5 In India Have Stunted Growth Due To Malnourishment
The 2019–21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS) anthropometric height and weight data allow for the measurement and assessment of the nutritional status of young children in India.
This assessment enables the identification of a child population that is more vulnerable to stunted growth, illness, poor mental development, and mortality.
Children under the age of five were assessed for weight and height for the 2019–21 NFHS.
Three indices—height-for-age, weight-for-height, and weight-for-age—were developed using children’s height/length, weight, and age data.
Each of these indices offers various data on development and body composition for determining nutritional health.
Low height for age, often known as stunting, is a symptom of chronic undernutrition and indicates a pattern of inadequate nutrition over an extended period of time.
Recurrent and chronic illnesses can also have an impact on stunting. Wasting, also known as low weight-for-height, is a metric for acute undernutrition that indicates that a person did not obtain
enough nutrition in the weeks or months before the survey.
Wasting may result from insufficient dietary intake or a recent sickness that caused weight loss. Overweight (high weight-for-height), a sign of over-nutrition, is the reverse of wasting.
A composite indicator called weight-for-age considers both acute and chronic undernutrition.
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