Growth and malnutrition among preschool children in Democratic Yemen

A cross-sectional anthropometric study of children aged 0-84 months was performed in 1982-83 in Democratic Yemen. The total sample included 3407 children, representing populations from urban, rural, and slum areas of the country. NCHS/WHO growth data were used for reference purposes.A high overall prevalence of wasting (8.7%) and stunting (35.2%) was found among the children. However, rural children exhibited a satisfactory weight-for-height during the first 6 months of life compared with both the reference and the urban and slum children. Slum children had a high prevalence of wasting during the first 18 months of life.For the younger age groups, rural children were shorter than urban children, but at 7 years of age all the children were similar, with a mean height-for-age corresponding to -1.7 standard deviations of that for the reference population. Mothers in the urban area weighed significantly more than those from the slum or rural areas (P<0.001), but all mothers had similar heights.