A systematic review of the factors influencing the co-occurrence of wasting, stunting, and underweight in children under five who suffer from severe acute malnutrition in low- and middle-income countries

Background: Concurrent wasting and stunting (WaSt) is a serious form of malnutrition among >5 children. Even though there is ample evidence that wasting and stunting have comparable causal pathways, there is still a dearth of information regarding WaSt correlates in middle-income countries. This rapid review aims to educate governments, policymakers, and service providers about the factors that concurrently affect stunting, wasting, and underweight in children under five suffering from severe acute malnutrition. The data sources served for this review were MEDLINE, including PubMed and Ovid, Embase, Central via Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Google Scholar.

Results: These results indicate that malnutrition is still a major public health problem among children under 5 years old. The factors that are commonly associated with stunting, wasting, and underweight are the child's age, anemia level, birth order or type, family structure, large family size, prematurity, being born to a malnourished mother, and being male boys. According to our review, boys are more likely than girls to suffer from undernutrition in children under the age of five, while the extent of these disparities varies and is more noticeable in certain situations than others. Cough was also linked to underweight, wasting, and WaSt. Moreover, wasting was substantially correlated with maternal age, occupation, and being a child from a poor family. In conclusion, malnutrition is still a major public health problem among children under 5 years old. Significantly, those children are suffering from severe, lifelong physical and mental impairment, which could lower their IQ scores and eventual earning potential.