Priority targets and indicators of nutritional status and intervention coverage for children and adolescents (aged 5–19 years)

The 2021 Lancet series on Adolescent Nutrition recommended actions to “strengthen and extend national data collection systems to include standardised indicators and determinants of adolescent nutritional status, and coverage of interventions among both adolescent boys and girls”. Currently, a lack of standardised nutrition surveillance systems for children and adolescents 5–19 years limits our understanding of their nutrition challenges and how to address them. It also explains why few nutrition targets exist, and perpetuates deprioritisation of routine data collection, for this age group.

In this report, we:

• Summarise current international targets relevant to nutrition of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years
• Present the results of a wide stakeholder survey to identify which indicators should be prioritised for inclusion in national data systems for children and adolescents aged 5–19 years
• Make recommendations for global and national targets for children and adolescents aged 5–19 years based on existing targets and priority indicators from the stakeholder survey