Diarrhea represents a large burden of disease in young children and episodes are significantly associated with childhood growth faltering, a recent study found. Using the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study framework, researchers leveraged existing estimates of diarrhea incidence, childhood undernutrition, and infectious disease burden to estimate the effect of diarrhoeal diseases on physical growth, including weight and height, and subsequent disease among children aged <5 years. The burden of diarrhea was measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). They found:

• Each day of diarrhea was associated with height-for-age Z-score, weight-for-age Z score, and weight-for-height Z-score.
• After addition of the DALYs due to the long-term squeal as a consequence of undernutrition, the burden of diarrhoeal diseases increased by 39.0% and was responsible for 55,778,000 DALYs among children aged <5 years in 2016.
• Among the 15,652,300 DALYs associated with undernutrition due to diarrhoeal episodes, >84.7% are due to increased risk of infectious disease.
• The burden of diarrhea has decreased substantially since 1990 and is greater in long-term vs acute.