Stunting prevention in low-middle income countries: Literature review

Abstract

The issue of stunting, which has been largely overlooked for an extended period, has suddenly garnered recognition as a significant worldwide health concern. It is now a public health issue that must be taken gravely and persistently into account. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of stunting prevention strategies in nations characterized by middle and low economic levels. In May 2023, a literature search was conducted in the Google Scholar and Medline databases using the search terms "Stunting", "Stunting Prevention", and "Low and Middle income countries". The conducted search resulted in a set of nineteen research papers that study specific nutrition indicators as well as sensitive nutrition indicators. Enhancing cross-agency collaboration is crucial in accelerating the mitigation of stunting. In order to mitigate the rise in stunting prevalence among children, it is imperative to implement early interventions, including the utilization of anthropometric measurements to assess children's growth, the provision of nutrient-rich foods, the dissemination of health counseling to adolescent and pregnant women regarding reproductive health for optimal fetal development, improving access to quality and timely antenatal care, strengthening community-based nutrition activities, nutrition health education as well as the promotion of sanitation practices.