An assessment of child malnutrition.

An international assessment of malnutrition in children <5 conducted by UNICEF is summarized in this pamphlet. The study is based on data collected in January 1990 and is representative of 76 developing countries in Africa Asia and Latin America. The objectives of the study are to ascertain the immensity of child malnutrition and to evaluate the accessibility of data for appraising malnutrition in children. By surveying the nutritional status of children to obtain reliable information a serious attempt can be made to eliminate child malnutrition. Besides providing an absolute measure of problems concerning children the survey also indicates social and economic development. The 3 indicators used to measure nutritional status include wasting stunting and underweight. These indicators are dependent on 4 anthropometric variables: age sex weight and height/length. Major findings of this assessment include that 150 million children <5(36%) in developing countries excluding China are malnourished 163 million (39%) are stunted 35 million are wasted and 23 million are severely malnourished. Asia is the most affected region with 1 child in 2 being malnourished which represents 2/3 of the worlds malnourished children. Furthermore approximately 1/2 of the malnourished children in the world live in 8 countries in South Asia. The least afflicted area is Latin America. Moreover rural malnutrition is more prevalent than urban malnutrition. In terms of age malnutrition is most prevalent at 2 years. However there is a 2nd peak in stunting at 5 years. In comparing malnutrition prevalences of boys and girls it was found that boys have a slightly higher prevalence in wasting and stunting but equal prevalence in underweight. If child malnutrition goals for the year 2000 are achieved 106 million children <5 could be rescued from malnutrition.