{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T16:22:11Z","timestamp":1792081331604,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,29]],"date-time":"2022-12-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672272000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Low dietary diversity significantly interplays with children\u2019s growth failure. However, evidence of its crucial role in children\u2019s health remains inconclusive in developing countries such as India. This study attempts to find the association between dietary diversity and growth outcomes among children aged between 6 and 23 months in India using the fourth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 2015\u20132016. A total of 67,278 mother-child pairs of children between the ages of 6\u201323 months and mothers aged 15\u201349 years were included in this study. Pearson\u2019s chi-square significance test and multivariable logistic regression were used to determine the association between dietary diversity and child growth outcomes (stunted, wasted, and underweight). The study found that the prevalence of stunting and severe stunting among children aged between 6 and 23 months were 35.9% and 16.2%; 23.8% and 8.5% represented wasting, and severe wasting; and more than 32%, 10% were underweight and severely underweight respectively. This present study found that having an inadequate minimum dietary diversity (&lt;4 food groups) significantly increases the risk of being stunted (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.29; 95% confidence interval (CI); 1.21\u20131.38), wasted (AOR = 1.29; 95% CI; 1.21\u20131.38), and underweight (AOR = 1.47; 95% CI; 1.39\u20131.56). Further, it was noted that children who did not intake dairy products, eggs, and other fruits and vegetables were more likely to be stunted, wasted, and underweight and more likely to be severely stunted, wasted, and underweight. Therefore, additional nutrition-specific interventions are urgently needed to strengthen and enhance existing feeding interventions aimed at improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, including complementary feeding practices among children aged between 6 and 23 months in India. The Government should focus such interventions more on states or regions where the prevalence of adequate minimum dietary diversity (MDD) and malnutrition is high.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu15010159","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,30]],"date-time":"2022-12-30T03:14:28Z","timestamp":1672370068000},"page":"159","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":41,"title":["Effects of Dietary Diversity on Growth Outcomes of Children Aged 6 to 23 Months in India: Evidence from National Family and Health Survey"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5663-5046","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jay","family":"Saha","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga (UGB), Malda 732103, West Bengal, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5500-2842","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pradip","family":"Chouhan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga (UGB), Malda 732103, West Bengal, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3521-1014","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Najma Iqbal","family":"Malik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha 40100, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7101-4192","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tanmoy","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga (UGB), Malda 732103, West Bengal, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Puja","family":"Das","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, University of Gour Banga (UGB), Malda 732103, West Bengal, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6506-1785","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad","family":"Shahid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"School of Insurance and Economics, University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing 100029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4668-2882","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Farooq","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100029, China"},{"name":"Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kun","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100029, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"WHO (2022, October 26). 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