Correlates of child nutritional status in six African countries.
Abstract
The study used a total of 14,658 records of children from six countries, namely: Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Z-scores were obtained by comparing anthropometric measurements with distributions of international World Health Organisation reference populations. A child was regarded as underweight if his or her weight-for-age Z-score was lower than two standard deviations from the reference median. indicators respectively. The analysis aimed to identify the correlates of nutritional status in these countries and at the same time, control for potential correlation of poor nutritional status among siblings and communities.With the exception of Zimbabwe, more than a quarter of all children aged 1-35 months were stunted. Similarly, the proportions of children who were underweight were high, ranging from 16% in Zimbabwe to 36% in Nigeria. Levels of wasting were highest in the two west African countries. The background to the study, methods, findings and policy implications are discussed, and the full reference to the published paper is given.
Citation
University of Southampton. Correlates of child nutritional status in six African countries. (2003) Opportunities and Choices Factsheet 2, 2 pp.
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