The rise in global disease burden attributable to chronic disease risk factors has been accompanied by a decrease in the relative importance of risk factors that largely or exclusively cause communicable diseases in children. The global disease burden attributable to childhood underweight halved between 1990 (7·9% [6·8–9·4] of global DALYs) and 2010 (3·1% [2·6–3·7]; table 3). Although the fraction of disease burden attributable to iron deficiency fell relatively little, suboptimal breastfeeding, unimproved water, unimproved sanitation, vitamin A deficiency, and zinc deficiency all decreased substantially between 1990, and 2010.
