The Trend of Nutritional Status for Female Youth in Low Income and Middle Income Countries from 1999 to 2009

Huan He, Johns Hopkins University

Despite the nutritional transition and food security issues in developing countries, nutritional status trend for female youth (15-24) is understudied in low and middle income countries. This study used 56 cross-sectional Demographic and Health Surveys from 23 countries grouped into three waves (1999, 2004 and 2009), to describe the trends of undernutrition (stunting and thinness/underweight) by demographics, and test the wave effect using fixed effect models. We found that the nutritional trends for the female youth in low and middle income DHS countries differ by indicators: stunting rates decreased in most of the countries; whereas thinness/underweight rates increased in most of them from 1999 to 2009. The trends differ over country income levels: more middle income countries showed improvement on undernutrition indicators as compared to the low income countries during the period. The trends also differ over waves: more countries had decreased undernutrition prevalence in 2004-2009 as compared to 1999-2004.