Lack of food is the leading cause of child death worldwide, killing 3.1 million children each year and accounting for 45 percent of all child mortality.
Undernourished children who survive still face a daunting future, including reduced intellectual capacity and a higher risk of disease and disability. And while economic growth is presumed to get more children fed, a booming economy alone doesn't fix the problem, researchers say.
Children's health isn't tracking with improvements in standard of living and economic growth, according to S. V. Subramanian, a social epidemiologist at Harvard University and the study's senior author.
Subramanian and his colleagues evaluated data from 36 low-and middle-income countries collected from 1990 to 2011. Researchers looked at each country's gross domestic product and the proportion of stunted, underweight and wasted (low weight for height) children under 3 years old.
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