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Prevalence of wasting among under 6-month-old infants in developing countries and implications of new case

Marko Kerac1, Hannah Blencowe, Carlos Grijalva-Eternod

  • 1Centre for International Health and Development, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK. marko.kerac@gmail.com

Archives of Disease in Childhood
|February 4, 2011
PubMed

Insights

New World Health Organization (WHO) standards significantly increase the estimated prevalence of wasting in infants under 6 months. This highlights a greater disease burden, especially for severe wasting, requiring policy consideration.

Area of Science:

  • Global child health
  • Pediatric nutrition
  • Public health surveillance

Background:

  • Infant wasting is a critical global health issue.
  • Accurate prevalence data is essential for effective interventions.
  • Growth references impact disease burden estimation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine wasting prevalence in infants under 6 months.
  • To assess the impact of new World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards on prevalence estimates.
  • To compare wasting prevalence using WHO standards versus National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references.

Main Methods:

  • Secondary analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data.
  • Inclusion of 15,534 infants under 6 months and 147,694 children aged 6 to 59 months from 21 developing countries.
  • Wasting defined by weight-for-height z-scores (<-2), with moderate wasting (-3 to <-2) and severe wasting (<-3).

Main Results:

  • WHO standards more than double infant wasting prevalence compared to NCHS references (median 15% vs 3.7%).
  • Estimated number of wasted infants under 6 months increases from ~3 million to ~8.5 million globally.
  • The increase in prevalence, particularly for severe wasting, is more pronounced in infants under 6 months than in older children.

Conclusions:

  • Wasting is prevalent among infants under 6 months in developing countries, regardless of the reference standard used.
  • Adoption of WHO standards significantly increases the estimated disease burden of infant wasting.
  • Policymakers and health programs must consider the implications of changing case definitions on resource allocation and risk assessment.
Abstract

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