PMID- 37065175
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20230717
IS  - 2589-5370 (Electronic)
IS  - 2589-5370 (Linking)
VI  - 58
DP  - 2023 Apr
TI  - Prevalence of Zero-Food among infants and young children in India: patterns of 
      change across the States and Union Territories of India, 1993-2021.
PG  - 101890
LID - 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101890 [doi]
LID - 101890
AB  - BACKGROUND: The extent of food deprivation and insecurity among infants and young 
      children-a critical phase for children's current and future health and 
      well-being-in India is unknown. We estimate the prevalence of food deprivation 
      among infants and young children in India and describe its evolution over time at 
      sub-national levels. METHODS: Data from five National Family Health Surveys 
      (NFHS) conducted in 1993, 1999, 2006, 2016 and 2021 for the 36 states/Union 
      Territories (UTs) of India were used. The study population consisted of the most 
      recent children (6-23 months) born to mothers (aged 15-49 years), who were alive 
      and living with the mother at the time of survey (n = 175,614 after excluding 
      observations that had no responses to the food question). Food deprivation was 
      defined based on the mother's reporting of the child having not eaten any food of 
      substantial calorific content (i.e., any solid/semi-solid/soft/mushy food types, 
      infant formula and powdered/tinned/fresh milk) in the past 24 hours (h), which we 
      labelled as "Zero-Food". In this study, we analyzed Zero-Food in terms of percent 
      prevalence as well as population headcount burden. We calculated the Absolute 
      Change (AC) to quantify the change in the percentage points of Zero-Food across 
      time periods for all-India and by states/UTs. FINDINGS: The prevalence of 
      Zero-Food in India marginally declined from 20.0% (95% CI: 19.3%-20.7%) in 1993 
      to 17.8% (95% CI: 17.5%-18.1%) in 2021. There were considerable differences in 
      the trajectories of change in the prevalence of Zero-Food across states. 
      Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, and Jammu and Kashmir experienced high increase in the 
      prevalence of Zero-Food over this time period, while Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan 
      and Madhya Pradesh witnessed a significant decline. In 2021, Uttar Pradesh 
      (27.4%), Chhattisgarh (24.6%), Jharkhand (21%), Rajasthan (19.8%) and Assam 
      (19.4%) were states with the highest prevalence of Zero-Food. As of 2021, the 
      estimated number of Zero-Food children in India was 5,998,138, with the states of 
      Uttar Pradesh (28.4%), Bihar (14.2%), Maharashtra (7.1%), Rajasthan (6.5%), and 
      Madhya Pradesh (6%) accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total Zero-Food 
      children in India. Zero-Food in 2021 was concerningly high among children aged 
      6-11 months (30.6%) and substantial even among children aged 18-23 months (8.5%). 
      Overall, socioeconomically advantaged groups had lower prevalence of Zero-Food 
      than disadvantaged groups. INTERPRETATION: Concerted efforts at the national and 
      state levels are required to further strengthen existing policies, and design and 
      develop new ones to provide affordable food to children in a timely and equitable 
      manner to ensure food security among infants and young children. FUNDING: This 
      study was supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 
      INV-002992.
CI  - (c) 2023 The Author(s).
FAU - Subramanian, S V
AU  - Subramanian SV
AD  - Professor of Population Health and Geography, Harvard Center for Population and 
      Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
AD  - Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public 
      Health, Boston, MA, USA.
FAU - Ambade, Mayanka
AU  - Ambade M
AD  - Post-Doctoral Fellow, Laxmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard 
      University, New Delhi, India.
FAU - Sharma, Smriti
AU  - Sharma S
AD  - Program Officer, Mother Infant and Young Child Nutrition, Tata Trusts, Delhi, 
      India.
FAU - Kumar, Akhil
AU  - Kumar A
AD  - Affiliate, Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 
      USA.
FAU - Kim, Rockli
AU  - Kim R
AD  - Assistant Professor, Division of Health Policy and Management, College of Health 
      Science, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
AD  - Interdisciplinary Program in Precision Public Health, Department of Public Health 
      Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20230330
PL  - England
TA  - EClinicalMedicine
JT  - EClinicalMedicine
JID - 101733727
EIN - EClinicalMedicine. 2023 Jun 27;61:102047. PMID: 37457115
PMC - PMC10102207
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Children
OT  - Food deprivation
OT  - Food insecurity
OT  - Food policy
OT  - India
OT  - Social determinants of health
OT  - States/Union Territories
OT  - Sustainable development goals (SDGs)
OT  - Zero hunger
OT  - Zero-Food
COIS- None.
EDAT- 2023/04/18 06:00
MHDA- 2023/04/18 06:01
PMCR- 2023/03/30
CRDT- 2023/04/17 03:53
PHST- 2023/01/04 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/02/09 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2023/02/10 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2023/04/18 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2023/04/17 03:53 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/04/18 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/03/30 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S2589-5370(23)00067-6 [pii]
AID - 101890 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101890 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - EClinicalMedicine. 2023 Mar 30;58:101890. doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101890. 
      eCollection 2023 Apr.