ArticleMaternal & child nutrition2019
"A child may be tall but stunted." Meanings attached to childhood height in Tanzania.
Article in Maternal & child nutrition, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Worldwide evidence about infant stunting from a public health perspective: A systematic review.Biomedica : revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud · 2021Pooled it
- Unpacking Sociocultural Barriers to Stunting Prevention: A Phenomenological Inquiry into Policy and Community Challenges.Portuguese journal of public health · 2026Article
- Beyond single metrics: a multidimensional approach to child growth and development-a decade-long review of an IUNS task force (2013-2024).Journal of nutritional science · 2026Review
- Caregivers' perceptions of factors influencing undernutrition among under five in Ubungo, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Article
- Local contextual factors of child stunting found via shared values of stakeholder groups: an exploratory case study in Kaffrine, Senegal.Public health nutrition · 2023Article
- Caregivers Systematically Overestimate Their Child's Height-for-Age Relative to Other Children in Rural Ethiopia.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Article
- What is normal, healthy growth? Global health, human biology, and parental perspectives.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2021Review
- Postpartum sex taboos and child growth in Tanzania: Implications for child care.Maternal & child nutrition · 2020Article
- "International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Maternal and Child Survival in Haor Region in Bangladesh. An Analysis of Fathers' Capabilities to Save the Future.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- "A child may be tall but stunted." Meanings attached to childhood height in Tanzania.Maternal & child nutrition · 2019Article
- Article
- Family Resilience With Stunted Children Aged Below 5 Years: A Qualitative Study in Depok City, Indonesia.Global qualitative nursing researchArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Stunting affects large numbers of under-fives in Tanzania. But do caretakers of under-fives recognize height as a marker of child growth? What meanings do they attach to linear growth? An ethnographic study using cultural schemas theory was conducted in a rural community in Southeastern Tanzania to investigate caregivers' conceptualizations of child height in relation to growth and the meanings attached to short stature. Data for the study were collected through 19 focus group discussions, 30 in-depth interviews, and five key informant interviews with caregivers of under-fives, including mothers, fathers, elderly women, and community health workers. Principles of grounded theory guided the data management and analysis. Although caregivers could recognize height increments in children and were pleased to see improvements, many held that height is not related to nutrition, health, or overall growth. They referred to short stature as a normal condition that caregivers cannot influence; that is, as a function of God's will and/or heredity. While acknowledging short stature as an indicator of stunting, most participants said it is not reliable. Other signs of childhood stunting cited by caregivers include a mature-looking face, wrinkled skin, weak or copper-coloured hair, abnormal shortness and thinness, delayed ability to crawl/stand/walk, stunted IQ, and frequent illness. Culturally, a child could be tall but also stunted. Traditional rather than biomedical care was used to remedy growth problems in children. Public health programmers should seek to understand the local knowledge and schemas of child stature employed by people in their own context before designing and implementing interventions.
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