Background: Malnutrition in childhood has lasting consequences; its effects not only last a lifetime but are also passed down from generation to generation such as short stature, school-aged children are the most vulnerable section of the population and require special attention, including nutrition. Method: We searched Medline through PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify all observational studies published before Jun 2022. Observational studies with a pediatric population aged 5–18 years that evaluated risk estimate with 95% confidence intervals the relationship between dietary diversity and undernutrition (wasting, stunting, and thinness) were included. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) were followed. Results: This is a first systematic review and meta-analysis with a total of 20 studies were eligible (n = 18 388). Fourteen data evaluated stunting resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.43 (95% CI: 1.08–1.89; p = 0.013). Ten data evaluated Thinness resulting in a pooled effect size estimated odds ratio of 1.10 (95% CI: 0.81–1.49; P = 0.542). Two studies were revealed wasting with a odds ratio of 2.18 (95% CI: 1.41–3.36; p-value < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the conclusions of this meta-analysis of cross-sectional studies, inadequate dietary diversity increases the risk of undernutrition in growth linear but not in thinness in school-aged children. The findings of this analysis suggest that initiatives that support improvements to the diversity of children’s diets to reduce the risk of undernutrition may be warranted in LMICs.

Background. Psychiatric disorders have been a challenge for public health and will bring economic problems to individuals and healthcare systems in the future. One of the important factors that could affect these disorders is diet. Objective. In the current study with a cross-sectional design, we investigated the association of Paleolithic and Mediterranean diets with psychological disorders in a sample of adult women. Methods. Participants were 435 adult women between 20 and 50 years old that refer to healthcare centers in the south of Tehran, Iran. The diet scores were created by the response to a valid and reliable semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), and the psychological profile was determined by response to the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was applied to compute the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results. After adjusted for potential confounders, it is evident that participants in the highest Paleolithic diet tertile had lower odds of depression (OR = 0.21; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.37: ), anxiety (OR = 0.27; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.45: ), and stress (OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.32; ) in comparison to the lowest tertile. Furthermore, those in the third tertile of the Mediterranean diet score were at lower risk of depression (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.36; ), anxiety (OR = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.38; ), and stress (OR = 0.23; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.39; ) compared with those in the first tertile. Conclusion. The result of the current study suggests that greater adherence to Paleolithic and Mediterranean dietary patterns may be related with a decreased risk of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress.