title: Nutrition status of pre-school children in a Cape Town township.
abstract: An anthropometric study evaluated the nutritional state of pre-school children in the Site C squatter area of Khayelitsha township in Cape Town. A cluster sampling method was used and the weight for age, height for age, weight for height and mid-upper arm circumference of 872 children between the ages of 1 and 5 years were recorded. The National Centers for Health Statistics percentile charts were used as a reference standard. There was a low level of acute malnutrition with 13.7% of children below the 3rd percentile for weight for age. Acute severe malnutrition was not a problem with only 1.0% below the 3rd percentile weight for height. The figure of 47.2% below the 3rd percentile for height for age indicates high levels of chronic malnutrition. Only 42.2% of children had a 'Road to Health' card. The need for further research, nutritional surveillance and health care intervention is highlighted.
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D013019:South Africa; D013029:Space-Time Clustering