Nutrition research in India: Underweight, stunted, or wasted?

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Shweta Khandelwal, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, India; Karen Siegel, Emory University; Kabayam Venkat Narayan, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2013-06-01
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 World Heart Federation (Geneva). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gheart.2013.05.003
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Global Heart
• ISSN: 2211-8160
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 131
• End Page: 137
• Grant/Funding Information: SK was supported financially during her stay as a post-doctoral fellow at the Emory University, by grant number 1 D43 HD065249 from the Fogarty International Center and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development at the National Institutes of Health.
• Keywords: nutrition; research capacity; policy; publications; global health
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, General; Health Sciences, Health Care Management

Abstract

India has experienced dramatic economic growth in the past 2 decades accompanied by a rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, which coexists with the unfinished agenda of undernutrition. Tackling these dual challenges requires strong investment in nutrition research. We compared India's research output with another rapidly developing country (China) and an established developed country (USA). We analyzed trends for each country between the periods 2000 to 2005 and 2006 to 2010, in terms of quantity and quality of the publications. India produced 2,712 articles (1.9% of the global total) in the 2000 to 2005 period and 3,999 articles (2.1%) in the 2006 to 2010 period, and the country impact factor was 191 and 174, respectively. The contributions to the top 10 nutrition journals during 2006 to 2010 was 1%. India must increase investment in and attention towards quality nutrition research and address potential barriers to publish. © 2013 World Heart Federation (Geneva). Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.