Association of Maternal Height With Child Mortality, Anthropometric Failure, and Anemia in India

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Abstract
More than 2 million children younger than 5 years died in India in 2006, more than in any other country, comprising one-quarter of all child deaths in the world.1 Most recent estimates also show very high prevalences of underweight (42.5%), stunting (48.0%), wasting (19.8%), and anemia (69.5%) among children younger than 5 years in India.2 Prior research on the determinants of child mortality and nutritional outcomes have primarily focused on contemporaneous factors such as breastfeeding, medical care,3 and birth spacing.4 Research on intergenerational factors that might also predispose a child to increased health adversity remains limited. Maternal height can be a useful marker for characterizing intergenerational linkages in health because adult height reflects a mother's health stock accumulated through her life course, especially the social and environmental exposures in her early childhood.5 Although a few studies have shown associations between maternal height and mortality6 and stunting,7,8 studies conducted in India to date have investigated only the association between maternal height and preterm birth and low birth weight.9-12 Previous studies were conducted in nonrepresentative convenience samples or local populations, thereby limiting the generalizability of the findings. Thus, using a large, nationally representative sample of children younger than 5 years, we investigated the association between maternal height and child mortality, anthropometric failure, and anemia in India.

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