One lakh children under 5 yrs died in India due to growth failure in 2023: Lancet study

An analysis of child mortality revealed a shocking discovery: one million children under the age of five died in 2023 due to various factors affecting their growth. Of these deaths,100,000 were reported in India.

The analysis attributed the fatalities to factors such as being underweight, stunting, and wasting, among others, which contributed to impaired growth and ultimately led to the children's deaths. Researchers suggest that there would be no single strategy to decrease the mortality across the globe given political climate, conflict, climate change and food security.

Nigeria tops list

The analysis published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health Journal noted that the West African country, Nigeria, topped the list with 188,000 deaths, linked to 'child growth failure'. The Democratic Republic of Congo ranked third, a step below India, with more than 50,000 deaths.

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'Child growth failure' increases the risks of death and disability from several diseases, including lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and measles.

Data from study

The analysis used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023, the latest in the series of assessments that measure health lost due to diseases, injuries and risk factors across 204 countries and territories.

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Despite data showing that deaths due to factors affecting child growth, across the globe, declined from 2.75 million in 2000 to 0.8 million in 2023, sub-Saharan African countries and South Asian countries remain a major concern. The two regions continue to see substantial and concentrated adverse health effects with more than 600,000 and 165,000 deaths among under-fives, respectively, the researchers estimated.

Geopolitical reasons

Co-author of the analysis, Professor Bobby Reiner, said, "The drivers behind child growth failure are complex and cumulative due to feeding issues, food insecurity, climate change, lack of sanitation, or war". Reiner works at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in the US, which coordinates the Global Burden of Disease study.

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"Therefore, no single strategy will improve their health across all regions," he added.

Child growth failure impact

The authors estimated that "in children younger than five years in 2023, CGF (Child Growth Failure) was associated with 79.4 million DALYs lost (Disability-adjusted life years lost) and 880,000 deaths." Being underweight accounted for 12 per cent of deaths in this age group, the highest share, followed by wasting (a form of malnutrition) at nine per cent and stunting at eight per cent.

Seventy-nine per cent of diarrhoeal disease deaths and 53 per cent of lower respiratory infection deaths among under-fives in South Asia were linked to child growth failure. The high-income region in South Asia, which recorded the lowest number of deaths related to growth failure, also saw the lowest fraction of deaths from both causes at about 33 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively.

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Most stunted infants show signs of growth failure within the first three months of life, which underscores the importance of interventions before and during pregnancy, the researchers said. Wasting and stunting can create a destructive loop because stunting increases the risk of future wasting and vice versa, and this cycle worsens as children grow older, they said.

Growth failure in the first few months of life often indicates that newborns born too small or too early. In older infancy and early childhood, it may point to other drivers of poor growth like inadequate nutrition, repeated infection or other causes, the team said.