Is Economic Growth Associated with Reduction in Child Undernutrition in India?

An analysis of cross-sectional data from repeated household surveys in India, combined with data on economic growth, fails to find strong evidence that recent economic growth in India is associated with a reduction in child undernutrition. Background: Economic growth is widely perceived as a major policy instrument in reducing childhood undernutrition in India. We assessed the association between changes in state per capita income and the risk of undernutrition among children in India. Methods and Findings: Data for this analysis came from three cross-sectional waves of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 1992–93, 1998–99, and 2005–06 in India. The sample sizes in the three waves were 33,816, 30,383, and 28,876 children, respectively. After excluding observations missing on the child anthropometric measures and the independent variables included in the study, the analytic sample size was 28,066, 26,121, and 23,139, respectively, with a pooled sample size of 77,326 children. The proportion of missing data was 12%–20%. The outcomes were underweight, stunting, and wasting, defined as more than two standard deviations below the World Health Organization–determined median scores by age and gender. We also examined severe underweight, severe stunting, and severe wasting. The main exposure of interest was per capita income at the state level at each survey period measured as per capita net state domestic product measured in 2008 prices. We estimated fixed and random effects logistic models that accounted for the clustering of the data. In models that did not account for survey-period effects, there appeared to be an inverse association between state economic growth and risk of undernutrition among children. However, in models accounting for data structure related to repeated cross-sectional design through survey period effects, state economic growth was not associated with the risk of underweight (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.98, 1.04), stunting (OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.99, 1.05), and wasting (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.96, 1.02). Adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic covariates did not alter these estimates. Similar patterns were observed for severe undernutrition outcomes. Conclusions: We failed to find consistent evidence that economic growth leads to reduction in childhood undernutrition in India. Direct investments in appropriate health interventions may be necessary to reduce childhood undernutrition in India. : Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary Background: Good nutrition during childhood is essential for health and survival. Undernourished children are more susceptible to infections and more likely to die from common ailments such as diarrhea than well-nourished children. Thus, globally, undernutrition contributes to more than a third of deaths among children under 5 years old. Experts use three physical measurements to determine whether a child is undernourished. An "underweight" child has a low weight for his or her age and gender when compared to the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards, which chart the growth of a reference population. A "stunted" child has a low height for his or her age; stunting is an indicator of chronic undernutrition. A "wasted" child has a low weight for his or her height; wasting is an indicator of acute undernutrition and often follows an earthquake, flood, or other emergency. The prevalence (how often a condition occurs within a population) of undernutrition is particularly high in India. Here, almost half of children under the age of 3 are underweight, about half are stunted, and a quarter are wasted. Why Was This Study Done?: Although the prevalence of undernutrition in India is decreasing, progress is slow. Economic growth is widely regarded as the major way to reduce child undernutrition in India. Economic growth, the argument goes, will increase incomes, reduce poverty, and increase access to health services and nutrition. But some experts believe that better education for women and reduced household sizes might have a greater influence on child undernutrition than economic growth. And others believe that healthier, better fed populations lead to increased economic growth rather than the other way around. In this study, the researchers assess the association between economic growth and child undernutrition in India by analyzing the relationship between changes in per capita income in individual Indian states and the individual risk of undernutrition among children in India. What Did the Researchers Do and Find?: For their analyses, the researchers used data on 77,326 Indian children that were collected in the 1992–93, 1998–99, and 2005–06 National Family Health Surveys; these surveys are part of the Demographic and Health Surveys, a project that collects health data in developing countries to aid health-system development. The researchers used eight "ecological" statistical models to investigate whether there was an association between underweight, stunting, or wasting and per capita income at the state level in each survey period; these ecological models assumed that the risk of undernutrition was the same for every child in a state. They also used 10 "multilevel" models to quantify the association between state-level growth and the individual-level risk of undernutrition. The multilevel models also took account of various combinations of additional factors likely to affect undernutrition (for example, mother's education and marital status). In five of the ecological models, there was no statistically significant association between state economic growth and average levels of child undernutrition at the state level (statistically significant associations are unlikely to have arisen by chance). Similarly, in eight of the multilevel models, there was no statistical evidence for an association between economic growth and undernutrition. What Do These Findings Mean?: These findings provide little statistical support for the widely held assumption that there is an association between the risk of child undernutrition and economic growth in India. By contrast, a previous study that used data from 63 countries collected over 26 years did find evidence that national economic growth was inversely associated with the risk of child undernutrition. However, this study was an ecological study and did not, therefore, allow for the possibility that the risk of undernutrition might vary between children in one state and between states. Further, the target of inference in this study was "explaining" between-country differences, while the target of inference in this analysis was explaining within country differences over time. The researchers suggest several reasons why there might not be a clear association between economic growth and undernutrition in India. For example, they suggest, economic growth in India might have only benefitted privileged sections of society. Whether this or an alternative explanation accounts for the lack of an association, it seems likely that further reductions in the prevalence of child undernutrition in India (and possibly in other developing countries) will require direct investment in health and health-related programs; expecting economic growth to improve child undernutrition might not be a viable option after all. Additional Information: Please access these websites via the online version of this summary at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000424.