The Prevalence and Risk Factors of Stunting Children Under 5 Years Old: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Stunting is one of the global issues that occur in children under 5 years old, especially children under 5 years old and come from countries with low income. Understanding the risk factors for stunding can help in determining a more comprehensive treatment strategy. The aim of this systematic review is to determine the prevalence and risk factors/determines of stunting. in children under 5 years old. The literatures come from Pubmed and Ebsco search engines. The keywords used are stunting, prevalence, risk factors, and determinants. Articles are limited to only publications/publications from 2014-2019; in English, stunting in the age group of children taken 5 years is the result of primary research. Of the 79 articles obtained from literature searches, 36 articles were relevant to the systematic purpose of this review. The highest prevalence is in countries in the African (29-64.5% for stunting and 16.1-26.8% for severely stunting) and in Asia (17.8-55.7% for stunting and 6.2-15.9% for severely stunting). The basic causes include Geo-Political-Social-Environment Factors, Economic and Parental. Underlying causes include: Household environment, hygiene practice and maternal factor. Immediate causes include: diseases, feeding and child factors. Overcoming poverty is the key to overcoming stunting and for this a comprehensive, cross-sectoral handling strategy is requires multi-level and multi-sector cooperation and efforts from the global community, state governments and social communities and families to synergize stunting prevention and management.