Socio‐cultural and economic determinants and consequences of adolescent undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in LLMICs: a systematic narrative review

• Published in: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 1416; no. 1; pp. 117 - 139
• Main Authors: Madjdian, Dónya S., Azupogo, Fusta, Osendarp, Saskia J.M., Bras, Hilde, Brouwer, Inge D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2018
• Subjects: adolescence; Adolescents; Afdeling Humane voeding; Chair Nutrition and Health over the Lifecourse; Cognition; consequences; Determinants; Economics; Education; Global Nutrition; HNE Nutrition and Health over the Lifecourse; HNE Voeding en Gezondheid in de Levenscyclus; Human Nutrition; Human Nutrition & Health; Human Nutrition (HNE); Humane Voeding; Humane Voeding & Gezondheid; Income; Leerstoelgroep Sociologie van Consumptie en Huishoudens; Literature reviews; LLMIC; Malnutrition; micronutrient deficiencies; Minority & ethnic groups; Nutritional status; Public health; Religion; Sanitation; Seasonal variations; Socioeconomics; Sociologie van Consumptie en Huishoudens; Sociology of Consumption and Households; Teenagers; Trajectories; Undernutrition; Underweight; VLAG; WASS; Wereldvoeding
• ISSN: 0077-8923; 1749-6632
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.13670

Adolescent undernutrition is a persisting public health problem in low and lower middle income countries (LLMICs). Nutritional trajectories are complexly interrelated with socio‐cultural and economic (SCE) trajectories. However, a synthesis of the SCE determinants or consequences of undernutrition in adolescents is lacking. We undertook a narrative review of published literature to provide a narrative overview of the SCE determinants and consequences associated with undernutrition among adolescents in LLMICs. We identified 98 articles from PubMed, SCOPUS, and CAB‐s on determinants and consequences of undernutrition as defined by stunting, underweight, thinness, and micronutrient deficiencies. At the individual level, significant determinants included age, sex, birth order, religion, ethnicity, educational and literacy level, working status, and marital status. At the household level, parental education and occupation, household size and composition, income, socioeconomic status, and resources were associated with undernutrition. Only a few determinants at the community/environmental level, including residence, sanitation, school type, and seasonality, were identified. The consequences of adolescent undernutrition were mostly related to education and cognition. This review underscores the importance of the broad range of context‐specific SCE factors at several levels that influence adolescent nutritional status and shows that further research on SCE consequences of undernutrition is needed.