PHYSICAL GROWTH OF CHILDREN UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE IN NCHELENGE, ZAMBIA- RESULTS FROM A DISTRICT SURVEY

This study focuses on the physical growth of children aged 0-60 months in Nchelenge District, northeast Zambia. By means of a two-stage clus tered and random sampling method, 193 households were selected. Weight , height, and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) of children 0 - 60 mo nths were measured. Underweight, stunting, and wasting were defined as weight for age, height for age, and weight for height (W/H), respecti vely, less than or equal to 2 z scores below the median of the Nationa l Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference population. Among 250 children, prevalence rates of 30% underweight, 69.2% stunting, and 4.4 % wasting were found, with the highest rates at age 12 - < 24 months. Prevalence of stunting, underweight, and wasting in children aged 0 - < 6 months and 6 - < 12 months suggested that a substantial proportion of infants were premature and/or small for gestational age. The liter ature suggests that prematurity and intrauterine growth retardation ma y be quite common in Africa, and this may have important implications for the interpretation of growth data and under nutrition rates. Use o f the MUAC < 125 mm as an indicator of wasting resulted in higher esti mates of wasting compared to W/H less than or equal to -2 z scores, an d seemed unsuitable as a screening test for wasting in this Zambian po pulation. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.