SynthesisAnnals of global health2018
Environmental Risk Factors Associated with Child Stunting: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Synthesis in Annals of global health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 211 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- The state of child nutrition in Ethiopia: an umbrella review of systematic review and meta-analysis reports.BMC pediatrics · 2020Pooled it
- Household living conditions and mental health of youth and adults: differences between urban and rural regions.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- The economic crisis in Lebanon and adolescent nutritional health: a multi-mycotoxin exposure and risk assessment of stunting and thinness.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- From gene to plate in Indonesia: a food system framework for the triple burden of malnutrition.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The Paradox of Stunting: Differences in the Perception of Health Workers in Community Health Centers and Experts in Hospitals on Low Birth Weight and Stunting Data.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Article
- Estimating pathways affecting stunting in families with children under aged 5 years.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Wealth inequalities in childhood stunting in the northern province of rwanda: a decomposition analysis.International journal for equity in health · 2025Article
- Impact of prenatal drought exposures on under-5 childhood stunting in 32 low-and-middle-income countries: a global analysis using demographic and health survey.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2025Article
- A retrospective study to understand the impact of flooding on natural selection and physical growth dynamics.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A Heavy Issue: Changes in Body Size in London Before, During and After the Black Death.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
- Risk factor analysis for stunting incidence using sparse categorical principal component logistic regression.MethodsX · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic Patterning of Stunting and Overweight Among Iranian Children Aged 2-5 Years: A National Cross-Sectional Analysis.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Identification of amendable risk factors for childhood stunting at individual, household and community levels in Northern Province, Rwanda - a cross-sectional population-based study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Utilizing Local Food Sources in a Sustainable Healthy Diet System and Psychosocial Care to Reduce Malnutrition.Pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology & nutrition · 2025Article
- Living with mother alone: exploring the risk of stunting among under-five children in India.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Impact of Low Birth Weight and Other Determinants on Stunting in Children Under-Five Years Old: Evidence from Indonesia's Nutrition Status Survey.International journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- Nursing students' knowledge and skills on children's environmental health in Ethiopia: A cross-sectional Study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Effect of pesticide exposure on stunting incidence: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical and experimental pediatrics · 2024Article
- Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundStunting, a form of malnutrition characterized by impaired linear growth in the first two years of life, affects one quarter of children globally. While nutritional status remains the key cause of stunting, there is evidence that environmental risk factors are associated with stunting.
objectiveThe objective of this review is to explore the current literature and compile the environmental risk factors that have been associated with stunting. Further, we seek to discover which risk factors act independently of nutritional intake.
methodsA systematic search of the literature was performed using PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, TOXNET, and CINAHL. A search of the grey literature was conducted. Papers were included in this review if they examined an association between childhood stunting and exposure to environmental risk factors.
findingsWe included 71 reports in the final analysis. The included studies showed that foodborne mycotoxins, a lack of adequate sanitation, dirt floors in the home, poor quality cooking fuels, and inadequate local waste disposal are associated with an increased risk of childhood stunting. Access to safe water sources was studied in a large number of studies, but the results remain inconclusive due to inconsistent study findings. Limited studies were available for arsenic, mercury, and environmental tobacco, and thus their role in stunting remains inconclusive. The identified research did not control for nutritional intake. A causal model identified solid fuel use and foodborne mycotoxins as being environmental risk factors with the potential to have direct effects on childhood growth.
conclusionsA diverse range of environmental risk factors are, to varying degrees, associated with stunting, demonstrating the importance of considering how the environment interacts with nutrition. Health promotion activities may be more effective if they consider environmental factors alongside nutritional interventions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.