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Children
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Childhood Malnutrition: 2nd Edition
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Childhood Malnutrition: 2nd Edition

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 July 2025 | Viewed by 466

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Tonia Vassilakou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Public Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of West Attica, 11521 Athens, Greece
Interests: nutritional knowledge and behavior of children and adolescents; childhood obesity; lifestyle medicine; diet; exercise; sleep; dietary supplements; smoking cessation; medical nutrition therapy; diabetes; epilepsy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, “Childhood Malnutrition: 2nd Edition”, will focus on malnutrition, including undernutrition, inadequate vitamin or mineral intake (hidden hunger), overweight, and obesity in infants, children, and adolescents. Malnutrition among children and adolescents is a major public health problem. In 2022, globally, 149 million children under the age of 5 years were stunted, 45 million were wasted, and 37 million were overweight or obese. Nearly half of deaths among children under 5 years of age are linked to undernutrition. These mostly occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Poor availability or access to food of adequate nutritional quality has led large population sections to be undernourished, have a poor nutritional status, or become overweight and obese. These conditions often present simultaneously and are interconnected and long-lasting for individuals and their families, for communities, and for countries. A healthy diet beginning in the early stages of life results in adequate energy and nutrient intake and healthy weight, making it crucial for the physical, mental, and cognitive development of children and adolescents, as well as for their long-term health. This Special Issue will explore the genetic and environmental (e.g., lifestyle, psycho-social factors, etc.) determinants of malnutrition in children, focusing on relevant methodological considerations, dietary recommendations, health interventions, and public health policy actions. Various types of articles, such as original research, methodology, and review articles, will be considered for publication.

Prof. Dr. Tonia Vassilakou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • malnutrition
  • undernutrition
  • hidden hunger
  • overweight
  • obesity
  • food availability
  • food insecurity
  • healthy diet

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 330 KiB  
Article
A Nutritional and Anthropometric Analysis of the Double Burden of Malnutrition in Children Under Two in Madagascar
by Rosita Rotella, María Morales-Suarez-Varela, Agustín Llopis-Gonzalez and Jose M. Soriano
Children 2025, 12(5), 640; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12050640 - 15 May 2025
Viewed by 137
Abstract
Background: Almost half of all deaths worldwide in children under five are related to malnutrition. Malnutrition encompasses a wide array of nutritional conditions and emerging evidence indicates a growing overlap of these different forms of malnutrition. Nutrimetry, which combines assessments of height-for-age [...] Read more.
Background: Almost half of all deaths worldwide in children under five are related to malnutrition. Malnutrition encompasses a wide array of nutritional conditions and emerging evidence indicates a growing overlap of these different forms of malnutrition. Nutrimetry, which combines assessments of height-for-age (HAZ) with BMI-for-age (BMIZ) to offer a more integrated assessment of nutritional status, can be particularly useful in low-resource settings to correctly reflect the complex interplay of stunting and overweight. Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the impact of malnutrition on children in Madagascar and demonstrate how integrating HAZ assessments with BMIZ can reveal the double burden of malnutrition—encompassing both undernutrition and overnutrition—within the same population. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study employing Nutrimetry was carried out in rural communities in the Itasy region of Madagascar. A systematic random sampling method was used to choose the 500 women to invite to participate from the approximately 5000 who formed the pool of potential participants. A total of 437 were able to be invited and all invited women agreed to participate, resulting in 437 mother–child (0–24 months) pairs being included in the study. Results: Chronic undernutrition or thinness (31.6%), overweight and obesity (21.3%), and stunting (57.6%) were prevalent among the children included in the study. Among children with chronic undernutrition, 55.06% were identified as stunted. Among children with overweight or obese, 61.03% were identified as stunted. This highlights a significant overlap between inadequate weight and stunting. A socioeconomic analysis revealed significant barriers, including limited financial resources and poor dietary diversity, exacerbating malnutrition. Maternal nutritional status and breastfeeding practices also emerged as critical determinants of child nutritional outcomes. Conclusions: The study underscores the importance of prioritizing height assessments as a preliminary step in nutritional evaluations to prevent undetected acute malnutrition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Childhood Malnutrition: 2nd Edition)
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