Changes In Child Survival Are Strongly Associated With Changes In Malnutrition In Developing Countries

Published in the Journal of Nutrition; Download Report [210 kb]

FANTA announces the publication of Changes In Child Survival Are Strongly Associated With Changes In Malnutrition In Developing Countries by David L. Pelletier and Edward A. Frongillo. Funded by FANTA and conducted by Cornell University, this seminal report examines the relationship between changes in child and under-5 mortality rates in developing countries in the past two or three decades and changes in the general nutritional status of children during the same period. Building on earlier work, Pelletier and Frongillo use population-level (rather than child-level) estimates of mortality and malnutrition, examine dynamic relationships (changes in malnutrition and changes in mortality) and use a much larger data set of developing countries. This report has important implications for child survival policies and programs. The report concludes that gaps in coverage of selected child survival interventions are more likely and more serious in the more malnourished populations. Continued reduction in mortality will require improved targeting of selected interventions and general nutritional improvement to the most marginal populations.

The report formed the basis of a recent presentation by Dr. Pelletier at USAID, December 2, 2002.

The report is published as:
Changes In Child Survival Are Strongly Associated With Changes In Malnutrition In Developing Countries will be included in the upcoming Journal of Nutrition, January 2003; Vol. 133, No. 1.

Copies of this may also be requested in hard copy.