Objectives: Current standards for comparing stunting across human populations assume a universal model of child growth. Such comparisons ignore population differences that are independent of deprivation and health outcomes. This paper partitions variation in height-for-age that is specifically associated with deprivation and health outcomes to provide a basis for cross-population comparisons. Materials & Methods: Using a multi-level model with a sigmoid relationship of resources and growth, we partition variation in height-for-age z-scores (HAZ) from 1,522,564 children across 70 countries into two components: 1) accrued HAZ shaped by environmental inputs (e.g., undernutrition, infectious disease, inadequate sanitation, poverty), and 2) a country-specific basal HAZ independent of such inputs. We validate these components against population-level infant mortality rates, and assess how these basal differences may affect cross-population comparisons of stunting. Results: Basal HAZ differs reliably across countries (range of 1.5 SD) and is independent of measures of infant mortality. By contrast, accrued HAZ captures stunting as impaired growth due to deprivation and is more closely associated with infant mortality than observed HAZ. Ranking populations by accrued HAZ suggest that populations in West Africa and the Caribbean suffer much greater levels of stunting than suggested by observed HAZ. Discussion: Current universal standards may dramatically underestimate stunting in populations with taller basal HAZ. Relying on observed HAZ rather than accrued HAZ may also lead to inappropriate cross-population comparisons, such as concluding that Haitian children enjoy better conditions for growth than do Indian or Guatemalan children.
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