Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006)

The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) was conducted in 2006 on a nationally representative sample of population in Malaysia. Over 21,000 children aged 0-17.9 years were measured for body weight and stature according to the protocol of the World Health Organization. This article describes the nutritional status of children aged 0-59.9 months. Mean z score for weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age were compared with the z-scores tables of the WHO standards. The overall prevalence of underweight and stunting of the children were 12.9% and 17.2% respectively. These levels included 2.4% severe underweight and 6.0% severe stunting. In terms of z scores, the age group of 0-5.9 months showed the best nutritional status with mean WAZ of-0.33 (95%CI:-0.52, 0.15) and-0.40 (-0.57, 0.24) for boys and girls respectively, while mean HAZ was 0.64 (0.38, 0.89) for boys and 0.76 (0.54, 0.98) for girls. Mean HAZ and WAZ status was least satisfactory after about 6 months, suggesting a faltering in growth rate at an age that coincides with dependence on complementary feeding. Prevalence of overweight based on BMI-for-age for the sexes combined was 6.4%, while that based on WAZ was 3.4%. The NHMS III results indicate that Malaysian children have better nutritional status compared to children under 5 years in neighbouring countries. In order to meet the targets set in the National Plan of Nutrition (2006-2015), more effective intervention programmes are needed to accelerate the reduction of underweight and stunting, and to arrest the rise of overweight in young children.

Preview PDF (Abstract) Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006).pdf Download (38kB) | Preview Official URL or Download Paper: http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn0015_2/defa...

Actions (login required)

View Item