Milk consumption and childhood anthropometric failure in India: Analysis of a national survey

Dairy milk has been shown to contribute to child growth in many countries, but the relationship between milk intake and anthropometric outcomes among Indian children has not been studied. The objectives were to describe children aged 6–59 months who consume dairy milk in India and determine if dairy milk consumption was associated with lower odds of stunting, underweight and anthropometric failure among Indian children. This was a cross‐sectional study based on the fourth Indian National Family Health Survey (NFHS‐4), which was a national survey conducted between 2015 and 2016 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The primary exposure was the consumption of dairy milk within the past day or night. The primary outcomes were stunting (height‐for‐age z score < −2), underweight (weight‐for‐age z score < −2) and the composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF), which is a combination of weight‐for‐age, weight‐for‐height and height‐for‐age. Multivariable logistic regression models and coarsened exact matching (CEM) were used to determine the relationship between dairy milk and odds ratios of each outcome. Setting was in India. Participants were children (N = 107,639) aged 6–59 months. Children who consumed dairy milk in the past day or night had an odds ratio of 0.95 for underweight (95% CI 0.92–0.98, P = .0005), 0.93 for stunting (95% CI 0.90–0.96, P < .0001) and 0.96 for CIAF (95% CI 0.93–0.99, P = .004), compared with children who did not consume dairy milk after adjusting for relevant covariates. When CEM was used among a subset (n = 28,207), evidence for relationships between dairy milk and anthropometric outcomes was consistent but slightly weaker. Widespread, equitable access to dairy milk among childhood may be part of an effort to lower the risk of anthropometric failure among children in India.