This dissertation examines the relationship between diet, maternal education
and stunting. The thesis further studies determinants of childhood growth
transitions. Low height-for-age, or stunting, is failure to reach linear growth
potential in early childhood due to recurrent illness and chronic malnutrition
(Fenske, Burns, Hothorn, & Rehfuess, 2013). Stunting is the most prevalent
form of malnutrition, affecting 155 million children (UNICEF, 2017). A major
concern about stunting, a form of chronic malnutrition, is that it has many
effects on the individual’s health, later child schooling, and therefore has
enormous economic implications. Reducing stunting is widely accepted as a
smart investment (Hoddinott, Alderman, Behrman, Haddad, & Horton, 2013).
Hoddinott, Alderman, et al. (2013) find that an individual stunted at age 36
months was predicted, as an adult, to have 66% percent lower per capita
consumption, presenting a direct measure of the economic cost of stunting
(Hoddinott, Alderman, et al., 2013). In addition, the World Bank estimates that
for every dollar invested in reducing stunting, there is a return of ten dollars
and an increase of 4-11% in Gross Domestic Product (Shekar, Kakietek, Dayton
Eberwein, & Walters, 2016). Furthemore, Spears (2012) demonstrated that
being one standard deviation taller showed an association with better future
writing skills.
As a result, nutrition is now a dominant feature of the global agendas. In 2010,
the Scaling up Nutrition movement, representing sixty countries to date, was
formed to collectively champion nutrition (SUN, 2017). In 2012, the World
Health Assembly (WHA) set targets to reduce stunting by 40% for each
country by 2025 (WHO, 2014), while the 2015, Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs, 2015) aim to end malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 (Baye, 2017). In
the history of global development goals, reducing stunting is today explicitly
included as an indicator, giving it a new focus and prominence. As stunting
persists globally, there is now growing recognition that strategies that are
effective for preventing stunting in a way that also address the other outcomes
that are associated with, but not caused by, stunting are still unclear.