Prevalence of Stunting in Mozambique in 1997 and 2003 : Prevalence of Stunting in Children below three years of age in Mozambique in 1997 and 2003: A comparison between two cross-sectional studies from Demographic and Health Surveys

Background: There are 842 million people in the world suffering from undernourishment. Mozambique is one of the countries in the world with a high prevalence of different kinds of malnutrition, stunting being one of these. Aim: To investigate the prevalence of stunting among children below three years of age and determinants for stunting on a national level in Mozambique comparing data from 1997 and 2003 in order to find out what possibly could have contributed to an eventual change. Methods: Two cross-sectional studies, conducted by the DHS, in 1997 (n=3773) and in 2003 (n=5502) in Mozambique were compared. Numerous Pearson’s chi-squared tests, independent t-tests and descriptive calculations were made in order to achieve the results. Results: No significant difference was found in the prevalence of stunting between the years. Determinants such as residential area, wealth index, educational levels, time required to get to a source of drinking water, birth weight, having a health card, antenatal visits, prevalence of diarrhea and fever all showed a significant difference. Discussion: Only the mother’s height and duration of breastfeeding showed no significant differences out of the chosen determinants. An improvement was found for most of the determinants and as poverty decreased during the studied time period, naturally a decreased prevalence of stunting should have occurred. Conclusion: No significant difference in stunting among children below three years of age in Mozambique on a national level in 1997 and 2003 was found. Keywords: Mozambique, malnutrition, undernourishment, stunting, child healt