ArticlePublic health nutrition2022
Childhood stunting and subsequent educational outcomes: a marginal structural model analysis from a South African longitudinal study.
Article in Public health nutrition, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Machine Learning in Predicting Child Malnutrition: A Meta-Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys Data.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Systems biology insights into the molecular drivers of childhood stunting and implications for intervention.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- The accuracy of a novel stunting risk detection application based on nutrition and sanitation indicators in children aged under five years.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Early transition markers, opportunities, and limitations that define pathways into the labour market from adolescence to adulthood in South Africa.Development policy review : the journal of the Overseas Development Institute · 2025Article
- Early life factors associated with childhood trajectories of violence among the Birth to Twenty-Plus Cohort in Soweto, South Africa.PloS one · 2025Article
- Spatial variations and determinants of malnutrition among under-five children in Nigeria: A population-based cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the association between childhood stunting and grade completion (as educational outcome) in South Africa.
designLongitudinal study. Data were obtained using the National Income Dynamics Study over five waves (2008 to 2017). Children were tracked at wave 1 in 2008 until wave 5 in 2017 to determine their total years of schooling. We controlled for time-variant and time-varying confounding with a marginal structural model to estimate the associations between childhood stunting and subsequent grade completion.
settingNationally representative study of South African households.
participantsA total of 2629 children aged 2 and 3 years in 2008.
resultsWe observed a substantial decrease in the prevalence of stunting between wave 1 (28·2 %) and wave 4 (8·6 %). Our marginal structural model results suggest that childhood stunting was significantly associated with decreased odds (22 % less likely) of grade completion (OR = 0·78; 95 % CI: 0·40, 0·86;
conclusionThese findings underscore the fact that stunting is a significant predictor of academic achievement, whose effects might be long-lasting.
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Registered trials
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