Child malnutrition remains a serious global health problem, but the theoretical frameworks for understanding this phenomenon remain fragmented and primarily biomedical in nature.
Aim
This article aims to analyze and compare the conceptualization and study of child malnutrition, explaining it through theoretical approaches to risk factors, social determinants, and the social determination of health in scientific literature.
Method
We conducted a scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews Statement. We searched articles related to the topic of research, published between 2012 and 2023, and papers written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese on the databases SciELO, Medline, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, EBSCO CINAHL, LILACS, and Redalyc. Letters to the editor, conference reports, and opinion articles were excluded.
Results
Forty-one articles were analyzed across the three theoretical approaches. The risk factor approach (n = 29, 70.7%) predominated, emphasizing environment, lifestyle, human biology, and healthcare organizations. Social determinants studies (n = 8, 19.5%) incorporated structural factors including capitalism, socioeconomic inequalities, and educational disparities, alongside intermediary factors such as sociocultural practices. Social determination studies (n = 4, 9.7%) employed a three-dimensional framework encompassing general dimensions (historical capital accumulation), particular dimensions (modes of living and social integration), and singular dimensions (food consumption patterns).
Conclusion
Child malnutrition has been predominantly analyzed from the perspective of classical epidemiology, which reduces the problem to biological and individual dimensions. Although the evidence for social determination is limited, it is theoretically significant because it includes the social, historical, and political nature of nutrition.
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