The Catch-Up Growth in Stunted Children: Analysis of First and Second India Human Development Survey Data.

Abstract

Context:Change in stunting as the children grow older is rarely found in published literature.Aims:The present paper compares the change in the prevalence of stunting among children as they grow from 0–4 years to 7–11 years.Settings and Design:The present paper is a secondary analysis of India Human Development Survey-I (IHDS-I) (2005) and IHDS-II (2012) data for Kerala.Methods and Materials:In total, 411 children of age 0–4 years and 390 children of age 7–11 years with anthropometric measurements were included in the present study, respectively, from IHDS-I and IHDS-II.Statistical Analysis Used:The statistical analyses were done using SPSS 21.0. The prevalence of stunting was estimated. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the Pearson Chi-square test.Results:The prevalence of stunting among children has been drastically reduced (50.4% to 20.3%) while growing older from 0–4 years to 7–11 years.Conclusions:More than half of the stunted children below 5 years regained normal growth, as they grow older.