The timing of growth faltering has important implications for observational analyses of the underlying determinants of nutrition outcomes

Abstract

Background Growth faltering largely occurs in the first 23 months after birth and is thought to be largely determined by various harmful or protective socioeconomic conditions. Children 23 months or younger, however, have only been partially exposed to these conditions, implying that statistical associations between these conditions and child growth may be substantially smaller in samples that include younger children. Objectives To test the prediction that associations between child anthropometric outcomes and various socioeconomic conditions are systematically different for older and younger children. Methods We analyzed data for 699,421 children aged 0–59 months, drawn from 125 DHS implemented between 1992 and 2014 in 57 countries. The outcome variables were height-forage Z scores (HAZ) and stunting (HAZ