Early childhood growth and nutritional status in India: trends in five National Family Health Surveys spanning 1992 and 2021

Background/Objective To evaluate the weight and height status of under-five children between 1992 and 2021 in relation to nutritional context. Subjects/Methods The study is based on the lengths/heights and weights of children <5 years in five national surveys ( n  = 505,026). After evaluating nor...

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Published inEuropean journal of clinical nutrition Vol. 79; no. 6; pp. 553 - 566
Main Authors Kundu, Ramendra Nath, Liczbińska, Grażyna, Gautam, Rajesh K., Bharati, Susmita, Pal, Manoranjan, Bharati, Premananda, Malina, Robert M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.06.2025
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects
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Body Height
Body Weight
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Clinical Nutrition
Epidemiology
Female
Health Surveys
Humans
India - epidemiology
Infant
Internal Medicine
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metabolic Diseases
Normality
Nutritional Status
Polls & surveys
Public Health
Surveys
India
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ISSN0954-3007
1476-5640
1476-5640
DOI10.1038/s41430-025-01568-3

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Summary:Background/Objective To evaluate the weight and height status of under-five children between 1992 and 2021 in relation to nutritional context. Subjects/Methods The study is based on the lengths/heights and weights of children <5 years in five national surveys ( n  = 505,026). After evaluating normality of the distributions, heights, and weights were expressed as z -scores relative to the WHO reference. Nonparametric tests were used as the heights and weights did not have normal distributions. Results Heights and weights of boys and girls increased systematically, on average, across the five national surveys, indicating improvement in nutritional status over time. Nevertheless, median z -scores for height and weight relative to the WHO reference indicated the persistence of relatively poor nutritional status across the surveys. Conclusions The growth status of Indian children <5 years improved over three decades, indicating that national initiatives promoting child health had a positive impact. Unfortunately, the nutritional status of significant numbers of children has not sufficiently improved and merits further attention.
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ISSN:0954-3007
1476-5640
1476-5640
DOI:10.1038/s41430-025-01568-3