Child undernutrition in Brazil: the wound that never healed

Abstract

Objective: To describe the scenario of child undernutrition in Brazil and its determinants.

Data source: Narrative review of the literature with inclusion of data from population surveys, surveillance and monitoring systems, and active search in favelas and underserved communities carried out by CREN.

Data synthesis: Household surveys carried out from 1974 to 2019 indicate that undernutrition (<5 years) decreased until 2006. Underweight (W/A ≤-2 Z) and stunting (H/A ≤-2 Z) showed a decrease of 17% to 3% and 37% to 7%, respectively. After 2006, there was an increase in underweight of 53% and 76% for wasting (BMI/A ≤-2 Z), with the prevalence of stunting being stagnant at around 7%. Active search data in favelas and underserved communities show that the prevalence of stunting is 11% in those <5 years. In 2021, 30% of the population lived in poverty, 73% of which were black or brown. Stunting in black and brown children <5 years old is, respectively, 9% and 12% higher when compared to white children. Poverty decreased between 2012 and 2015 (27 to 25%), but increased again (2016=26% to 2021=30%), in parallel with food insecurity, which decreased between 2004 and 2013 (12% to 6%), but reached its worst level in the historical series (2022:15%).

Conclusion: Despite advances, Brazil's social protection system was not able to reduce inequalities and the reversal of the trend towards decreasing child undernutrition could be observed from 2006 onwards.

Keywords: Child undernutrition; Poverty; Social inequality; Stunting; Underweight; Wasting.