The information on the nutritional status of children in the 2015 LCMS survey included anthropometric measurements for children under the age of 5 years. These anthropometric measurements allow for measurement and evaluation of the overall nutritional and health status of young children. The evaluation also allows for identification of subgroups of the child population that are at increased risk of faltered growth, disease, impaired mental development and death. The factors that influence nutritional status of children are many. Among them are poverty status of mothers, poor diet and poor environmental conditions of
households. These can impair growth in children and result n reduced weight or height.
The three standard indices of physical growth that describe the nutritional status of children are defined as
follows:
Stunting (height-for-age) is a condition reflecting the cumulative effect of chronic malnutrition.
Wasting (weight-for-height) is a failure to gain weight in relation to height. It is a short-term effect and reflects a recent and severe process that has led to substantial weight loss, usually associated with starvation and/or disease.
Underweight (weight-for-age) is a condition of low weight in relation to age. It is a composite index of weight-for-height and height-for-age and thus does
not distinguish between acute malnutrition (wasting) and chronic malnutrition (stunting). A child can be underweight for his/her age because he/she is stunted or
wasted, alternatively because he/she is wasted and stunted. Weight for age is a good overall indicator of a population’s nutritional health.
| Cases: | 5542 |
| Variables: | 35 |