ArticleCommunications medicine2024
Analysis of anthropometric outcomes in Indian children during the COVID-19 pandemic using National Family Health Survey data.
Article in Communications medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Critical Evaluation of the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Child Health and Wellbeing and Suggested Preparedness for Future Pandemics-A Narrative Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Nutritional status of under-5 children in Bangalore city during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- Schooling and intimate partner violence: retrospective analysis of India's Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan using quasi-experimental techniques.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Routine immunization againstThe Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2024Article
- Analysis of anthropometric outcomes in Indian children during the COVID-19 pandemic using National Family Health Survey data.Communications medicine · 2024Article
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.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDisruptions in food, health, and economic systems during the COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected child health. There is currently limited research on the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on stunting, wasting, and underweight status of young children.
methodsWe examine the short-term associations between the pandemic and anthropometric outcomes of under-5 children (n = 232,920) in India, using data from the National Family Health Survey (2019-2021). Children surveyed after March 2020 are considered as the post-COVID group, while those surveyed earlier are considered as pre-COVID. Potential biases arising from differences in socioeconomic characteristics of the two groups are mitigated using propensity score matching methods.
resultsPost-COVID children surveyed in 2020 and 2021 have 1.2% higher underweight rates, 1.2% lower wasting rates, 0.1 lower height-for-age z-scores (HAZ), and 0.04 lower weight-for-height z-scores as compared with matched pre-COVID children. Post-COVID children surveyed in 2020 have 1.6%, 4.6%, and 2.4% higher stunting, underweight, and wasting rates, respectively, and 0.07 lower HAZ, as compared with matched pre-COVID children. Reductions in nutritional status are largest among children from households in the poorest wealth quintiles.
conclusionsThese findings indicate a trend towards a recovery in child anthropometric outcomes in 2021 after the initial post-pandemic reductions. The resilience of health and food systems to shocks such as COVID-19 should be strengthened while immediate investments are required to decrease child malnutrition and improve broader child health outcomes.
Identifiers
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.