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Indicator name Prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age

Prepared by WHO

Example WWDR3, Chapter 6, Map 6.2

Rationale Stunting is a sign of chronic under-nutrition. It is associated with low socio-

economic status, low educational level of parents, poor water supply and

sanitation, and high infectious disease burden. Height-for-age is considered the

 best indicator of chronic under-nutrition reflecting the cumulative effects of

socio-economic, environmental, health, and nutritional conditions.

Position in DPSIR chain Impact.

Definition of indicator Percentage of children under five years old whose height-for-age is below minustwo standard deviations from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards.

Underlying definitionsand concepts

Stunting: Children are classified as stunted if Z-scores of height-for-age are below minus two standard deviations (SD) from the median of the WHO Child

Growth Standards.

Specification of

determinants needed

Height and age.

Computation Anthropometric indices are compared with the WHO Child Growth Standards.Height-for-age is expressed in terms of standard deviations from the median of

the reference population (Z-scores).

Units of measurements Height-for-age expressed in Z-scores.

Data sources, availability

and quality

WHO Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition which is based on

nationally representative anthropometric surveys.

http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/  (Accessed 02 March 2009)http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007/en/ (Accessed 02 March 2009)

Scale of application Data are from national household surveys, including Demographic and HealthSurveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and national nutrition surveys.

Geographical coverage Global.

Interpretation Stunting (low height-for-age) is the result of chronic under-nutrition and is an

indicator of standard of living, women’s educational level, access to food, access

to water supply and sanitation, and burden of infectious diseases.

Linkage with other None reported.

http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007/en/http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2007/en/http://www.who.int/nutgrowthdb/

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indicators

Alternative methods and

definitions

Anthropometric data for a population have to be presented by age group (age-

standardized) unless the age distributions between the two populations are very

similar.

Related indicator sets None reported.

Sources of further

information

WHO. 1995. Physical Status: the Use and Interpretation of Anthropometry.

WHO Technical Report Series, No. 854.WHO. 2007. World Health Statistics 2007  

Other institutionsinvolved

WHO, UNICEF, Ministries of Health