Risk of poor development in young children in low-income and middle-income countries: an estimation and analysis at the global, regional, and country level

摘要

Background A 2007 study published in The Lancet estimated that approximately 219 million children aged youngerudthan 5 years were exposed to stunting or extreme poverty in 2004. We updated the 2004 estimates with the use ofudimproved data and methods and generated estimates for 2010.udMethods We used country-level prevalence of stunting in children younger than 5 years based on the 2006 GrowthudStandards proposed by WHO and poverty ratios from the World Bank to estimate children who were either stunted orudlived in extreme poverty for 141 low-income and middle-income countries in 2004 and 2010. To avoid counting theudsame children twice, we excluded children jointly exposed to stunting and extreme poverty from children living inudextreme poverty. To examine the robustness of estimates, we also used moderate poverty measures.udFindings The 2007 study underestimated children at risk of poor development. The estimated number of childrenudexposed to the two risk factors in low-income and middle-income countries decreased from 279·1 million (95% CIud250·4 million–307·4 million) in 2004 to 249·4 million (209·3 million–292·6 million) in 2010; prevalence of childrenudat risk fell from 51% (95% CI 46–56) to 43% (36–51). The decline occurred in all income groups and regions withudsouth Asia experiencing the largest drop. Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest prevalence in both years. These fi ndingsudwere robust to variations in poverty measures.udInterpretation Progress has been made in reducing the number of children exposed to stunting or poverty betweenud2004 and 2010, but this is still not enough. Scaling up of eff ective interventions targeting the most vulnerableudchildren is urgently needed.