 Undernutrition and the Nutrition Transition: Revising the undernutrition aspect of MDG IMark Misselhorn
No 35, Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers from Courant Research Centre PEG Abstract: Since the publication of the new multi-country reference standard by WHO it is likely that future progress in the ght against undernutrition will be tracked by using this new standard. The use of the new reference standard will result in clear changes in the prevalence and composition of undernutrition. This paper argues that this opportunity should be used to use stunting or a Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure instead of underweight as the indicator to measure progress in the ght against hunger. All weight based anthropometric measures, such as underweight and wasting, suffer from the fact that due to changes in the nutritional composition of diets in developing countries there is going to be a secular reduction in those measures that does not coincide with real improvements in the health of the affected children. This bias could lead to wrong conclusions concerning the fulllment of the undernutrition aspect of MDG I. Keywords: Nutrition transition; child undernutrition; Millennium Development Goals; composition of undernutrition (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:got:gotcrc:035 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers from Courant Research Centre PEG Platz der Goettinger Sieben 3; D-37073 Goettingen, GERMANY. |
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