Machine Learning in Predicting Child Malnutrition: A Meta-Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys Data.

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Childhood malnutrition remains a significant global public health concern. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program provides specific data on child health across numerous countries. This meta-analysis aims to comprehensively assess machine learning (ML) applications in DHS data to predict malnutrition in children. A comprehensive search of the peer-reviewed literature in PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases was conducted in January 2024. Studies employing ML algorithms on DHS data to predict malnutrition in children under 5 years were included. Using PROBAST (Prediction model Risk Of Bias Assessment Tool), the quality of the listed studies was evaluated. To conduct meta-analyses, Review Manager 5.4 was used. A total of 11 out of 789 studies were included in this review. The studies were published between 2019 and 2023, with the major contribution from Bangladesh (n = 6, 55%). Of these, ten studies reported stunting, three reported wasting, and four reported underweight. A meta-analysis of ten studies reported a pooled accuracy of 68.92% (95% CI: 66.04, 71.80; I2 = 100%) among ML models for predicting stunting in children. Three studies indicated a pooled accuracy of 84.39% (95% CI: 80.90, 87.87; I2 = 100%) in predicting wasting. A meta-analysis of four studies indicated a pooled accuracy of 73.60% (95% CI: 70.01, 77.20; I2 = 100%) for ML models predicting underweight status in children. This meta-analysis indicated that ML models were observed to have moderate to good performance metrics in predicting malnutrition using DHS data among children under five years.