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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Agricultural development and nutritional status in Malawi |
Author: | Kurth, A. |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Journal of Tropical Pediatrics |
Volume: | 35 |
Issue: | 5 |
Pages: | 250-254 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Malawi |
Subjects: | agricultural projects malnutrition children agriculture |
External link: | http://tropej.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/35/5/250 |
Abstract: | A comparative anthropometric assessment involving 2175 measurements of 1533 children under the age of 5 was carried out in Malawi, both before and after the harvest seasons (February and May, 1985). Subjects were randomly drawn from socioeconomically similar rural environments within and outside a large-scale agricultural development project, the World Bank-funded Lilongwe Rural Development Project. Chronic malnutrition (height for age less than 90 percent of the median) was found to be 36 percent in February and 41 percent in May. The prevalence of acute malnutrition (weight for height less than 80 percent of the median) was 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Tests of significance found no statistical difference between the project and non-project children for a variety of nutritional status indices. It is postulated that such factors as increased female access to extension services and male access to nutrition education may have greater impact on morbidity than income increases alone, and should be part of agricultural development planning. Ref. |