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Metadata Glossary

CodeSH.STA.MALN.ZS
Indicator NamePrevalence of underweight, weight for age (% of children under 5)
Long definitionPrevalence of underweight children is the percentage of children under age 5 whose weight for age is more than two standard deviations below the median for the international reference population ages 0-59 months. The data are based on the WHO's 2006 Child Growth Standards.
SourceUNICEF, WHO, World Bank: Joint child Malnutrition Estimates (JME). Aggregation is based on UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank harmonized dataset (adjusted, comparable data) and methodology.
TopicHealth: Nutrition
Unit of measure%
PeriodicityAnnual
Aggregation methodLinear mixed-effect model estimates
Limitations and exceptionsSurvey estimates come with levels of uncertainty due to both sampling error and non-sampling error (e.g., measurement technical error, recording error etc.,). None of the two sources of errors have been fully taken into account for deriving estimates neither at country nor at regional or worldwide levels.
General commentsUndernourished children have lower resistance to infection and are more likely to die from common childhood ailments such as diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections. Frequent illness saps the nutritional status of those who survive, locking them into a vicious cycle of recurring sickness and faltering growth (UNICEF). Estimates are from national survey data. Being even mildly underweight increases the risk of death and inhibits cognitive development in children. And it perpetuates the problem across generations, as malnourished women are more likely to have low-birth-weight babies. Stunting, or being below median height for age, is often used as a proxy for multifaceted deprivation and as an indicator of long-term changes in malnutrition.
Other web linksRecommendations for data collection, analysis and reporting on anthropometric indicators in children under 5 years old. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. https://data.unicef.org/resources/data-collection-analysis-reporting-on-anthropometric-indicators-in-children-under-5/ https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241515559 WHO Anthro Survey Analyzer - https://www.who.int/tools/child-growth-standards/software
License URLhttps://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by
License TypeCC BY-4.0
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