To assess anthropometric failure, we commonly use measures that include child stunting, wasting and underweight. However, these measures often oversimplify the multidimensional nature of the failure. We propose a Comprehensive Failure Assessment (CFA) measure that unifies these dimensions on a unitary scale, where ‘all failure’ is 1, ‘no failure’ is 0 and other failure combinations fall between 0 and 1. CFA assigns relevant weights to different combinations of failure and offers a visual representation of the cumulative pathway from all failures to no failures. This nuanced approach considers deprivation counts and all possible combinations of failures, providing a more thorough evaluation. Using the CFA measure we examine temporal changes in child nutrition across socio-economic groups such as wealth, caste, residence and region from 2006 to 2016. This new approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of anthropometric failures and facilitates the visualization of pathways across diverse socio-economic contexts.
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