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Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence

OBJECTIVES: This review aimed to provide an overview of the prevalence of undernutrition in children under 5 years old in refugee camps according to the different indicators. In addition, we aimed to evaluate the quality and quantity of relevant epidemiological data available. DESIGN: We used a syst...

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Autores principales: Skinner, Annabel, Tester-Jones, Michelle Caroline, Carrieri, Daniele
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10277121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37321810
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070246
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author Skinner, Annabel
Tester-Jones, Michelle Caroline
Carrieri, Daniele
author_facet Skinner, Annabel
Tester-Jones, Michelle Caroline
Carrieri, Daniele
author_sort Skinner, Annabel
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: This review aimed to provide an overview of the prevalence of undernutrition in children under 5 years old in refugee camps according to the different indicators. In addition, we aimed to evaluate the quality and quantity of relevant epidemiological data available. DESIGN: We used a systematic review of prevalence study design to achieve the above aims. We sought eligible observational studies through database searching of OVID Medline, CAB Global Health, Scopus and PubMed; citation chasing; and grey literature searching. SETTING: The setting of interest was refugee camps across the globe. PARTICIPANTS: Participants in the studies included in the review were children under 5 years old. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures of interest were the prevalence of wasting, global acute malnutrition, stunting and underweight. RESULTS: The review included 33 cross-sectional studies in 86 sites and a total of 36 750 participants. Overall, the quality of the studies was moderate to high, but some reports lacked clarity around data collection or outcome definitions. The results showed a wide variation in prevalence estimates across the different indicators and between different refugee camps. The median prevalence estimates of global acute malnutrition based on weight-for-height z-score, stunting and underweight were 7.1%, 23.8% and 16.7%, respectively. Using weight-for-height z-score identified a higher prevalence of acute malnutrition than using mid-upper arm circumference in the majority of studies. CONCLUSIONS: Acute malnutrition remains a public health problem in many refugee camps, but chronic malnutrition has a high prevalence in more locations. Research and policy must, therefore, focus not only on nutrition but also on the wider determinants of both acute and chronic undernutrition. The difference in prevalence of global acute malnutrition depending on the measure used has implications for screening and diagnosis.
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spelling pubmed-102771212023-06-19 Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence Skinner, Annabel Tester-Jones, Michelle Caroline Carrieri, Daniele BMJ Open Global Health OBJECTIVES: This review aimed to provide an overview of the prevalence of undernutrition in children under 5 years old in refugee camps according to the different indicators. In addition, we aimed to evaluate the quality and quantity of relevant epidemiological data available. DESIGN: We used a systematic review of prevalence study design to achieve the above aims. We sought eligible observational studies through database searching of OVID Medline, CAB Global Health, Scopus and PubMed; citation chasing; and grey literature searching. SETTING: The setting of interest was refugee camps across the globe. PARTICIPANTS: Participants in the studies included in the review were children under 5 years old. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures of interest were the prevalence of wasting, global acute malnutrition, stunting and underweight. RESULTS: The review included 33 cross-sectional studies in 86 sites and a total of 36 750 participants. Overall, the quality of the studies was moderate to high, but some reports lacked clarity around data collection or outcome definitions. The results showed a wide variation in prevalence estimates across the different indicators and between different refugee camps. The median prevalence estimates of global acute malnutrition based on weight-for-height z-score, stunting and underweight were 7.1%, 23.8% and 16.7%, respectively. Using weight-for-height z-score identified a higher prevalence of acute malnutrition than using mid-upper arm circumference in the majority of studies. CONCLUSIONS: Acute malnutrition remains a public health problem in many refugee camps, but chronic malnutrition has a high prevalence in more locations. Research and policy must, therefore, focus not only on nutrition but also on the wider determinants of both acute and chronic undernutrition. The difference in prevalence of global acute malnutrition depending on the measure used has implications for screening and diagnosis. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10277121/ /pubmed/37321810 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070246 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Global Health
Skinner, Annabel
Tester-Jones, Michelle Caroline
Carrieri, Daniele
Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title_full Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title_fullStr Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title_full_unstemmed Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title_short Undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
title_sort undernutrition among children living in refugee camps: a systematic review of prevalence
topic Global Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10277121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37321810
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-070246
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