SynthesisGlobal health research and policy2024
Quantifying the increased risk of illness in malnourished children: a global meta-analysis and propensity score matching approach.
Synthesis in Global health research and policy, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Health equity begins with children: dismantling barriers to healthcare access in low- and middle-income countries.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2026Article
- Multiomics characterization of acute child illness and mortality in Africa and South Asia.Nature communications · 2026Article
- 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
- The interplay between malnutrition, persistent diarrhea, lactose intolerance, and food associated gut dysbiosis in children; a comprehensive review.BMC pediatrics · 2026Review
- Somalia's Drought-Disease Spiral: Climate Shocks as an Emerging Public Health Security Threat.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2026Article
- Community health needs assessment: findings from a community-university partnership strengthening program on maternal and child health in Pakistan.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A deep learning approach for classifying and predicting children's nutritional status in Ethiopia using LSTM-FC neural networks.BioData mining · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChildhood morbidity and mortality continue to be major public health challenges. Malnutrition increases the risk of morbidity and mortality from illnesses such as acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, fever, and perinatal conditions in children. This study explored and estimated the magnitude of the associations between childhood malnutrition forms and child morbidity.
methodsWe performed an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis and employed propensity score matching to examine crude (unadjusted) and adjusted associations. Our analysis utilized demographic and health datasets from surveys conducted between 2015 and 2020 in 27 low- and middle-income countries. Our objective was to quantify the risk of morbidity in malnourished children and estimate the population-attributable fraction (PAF) using a natural experimental design with a propensity score-matched cohort.
resultsThe IPD meta-analysis of child morbidity across three childhood malnutrition forms presented nuanced results. Children with double-burden malnutrition had a 5% greater risk of morbidity, which was not statistically significant. In contrast, wasted children had a 28% greater risk of morbidity. Overweight children exhibited a 29% lower risk of morbidity. Using the matched sample, children with double-burden malnutrition and overweight children had lower morbidity risks (1.7%, RR: 0.983 (95% CI, 0.95 to 1.02) and 20%, RR: 0.80 (95% CI, 0.76 to 0.85), respectively), while wasting was associated with a 1.1 times (RR: 1.094 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.14)) greater risk of morbidity. Eliminating double-burden malnutrition and wasting in the four and seven countries with significant positive risk differences could reduce the child morbidity burden by an estimated average of 2.8% and 3.7%, respectively.
conclusionsOur study revealed a correlation between specific childhood malnutrition subtypes-double-burden malnutrition and wasting-and increased risks of morbidity. Conversely, overweight children exhibited a lower risk of immediate morbidity, yet they may face potential long-term health challenges, indicating the necessity for nuanced approaches to childhood nutrition.
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