Why Are So Many Children Stunted in the Philippines?
Nearly one in three children under age five in the Philippines is stunted, a key marker of undernutrition. This rate is high for the country's level of income. This paper provides the first detailed multivariate analysis of potential drivers o...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/195651592920718373/Why-Are-So-Many-Children-Stunted-in-the-Philippines http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33989 |
| Summary: | Nearly one in three children under age
five in the Philippines is stunted, a key marker of
undernutrition. This rate is high for the country's
level of income. This paper provides the first detailed
multivariate analysis of potential drivers of stunting in
the Philippines, using data from the 2015 National Nutrition
Survey. Potential drivers are analyzed individually and
grouped in major categories. The analysis finds that
stunting between 24-60 months is principally associated with
suboptimal prenatal conditions and inadequate food security
and diversity. If the results are given a causal
interpretation, they imply that if all Filipino newborns had
adequate prenatal conditions, the fraction stunted at age
24-60 months would fall by 20 percent. Similarly, providing
adequate food security and diversity to all Filipino
children would reduce stunting by 22 percent. Other factors
-- including access to water, sanitation, and environmental
conditions -- have less strong associations with stunting.
The results point to a series of policy priorities to reduce
stunting: supporting the nutrition and health of expectant
mothers, ensuring access to contraception to reduce
adolescent pregnancy, and ensuring that children consume a
variety of healthy foods, including protein-dense foods such
as milk, meat, and eggs. |
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