DHAKA, Bangladesh

One in every four children in Bangladesh under the age of five was found to be stunted, due mainly to poor diet and malnutrition, according to the results of a national health survey released on Tuesday.

Poverty, child marriage, and lack of access to nutritious foods are among the major causes behind the poor nutrition situation in rural Bangladesh, according to health experts.

The results still, however, mark a gradual improvement compared to past rates of stunted children, said the survey.

Four years ago, the rate had been 31%, according to the preliminary results of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2022, published at an event in the capital Dhaka.

No improvement was registered in the situation of child nutrition in the report, with the rate of underweight children not decreasing, warned the survey.

Currently, 22% of children under five years of age are underweight, unchanged from the 2017-2018 survey.

Alarmingly, the reading on wasting children increased to 11%, up compared to 8% in 2017-2018. Experts at the event said this may be a sign of deteriorating nutrition among minors.

The UN's World Food Program (WFP) had previously emphasized the need for food assistance and improved dietary diversity in the South Asian nation.

Another study, titled "Prevalence and risk predictors of childhood stunting in Bangladesh," published this January in peer-reviewed journal Plos One, found that child malnutrition was still a leading cause of severe health and welfare problems across Bangladesh.

Analyzing a sample of 8,321 children under five years of age, the study pointed to stunting as the most prevalent form of child malnutrition and said it was a serious public health issue in many low- and middle-income countries.

Stunting has both short- and long-term negative impacts on children's health, including low birth weight, obstructed cognitive development, which affects school achievement, and restricted life prospects in adulthood, according to the study.

Cesarean-section births have increased at an unusual pace in Bangladesh, due to a rise in facility- or hospital-based deliveries. Compared to 2017, the incidence of cesarean-section births last year increased from 34% to 45%.

Most of these were done in private hospitals. In 2022, 84% of the country's total births took place in private hospitals.

According to Save the Children, 77% of all cesarean-section operations, an estimated 860,000 procedures in 2018, were medically unnecessary, up from 570,000 in 2016.

The survey was led by Bangladesh's National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT) under the Health Ministry, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Center for Humanitarian Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B).

NIPORT collected data from over 30,000 households in cities and villages for the survey in June-December.