Patterns and Determinants of Malnutrition in Children in Pakistan: Impact of Community Health (Income DISTRIBUTION AND Poverty) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Pakistan's 6.7 percent average annual growth rate in GDP in the last decade can be described as impressive even by the standards of the rapidly growing economies in Asia [Government of Pakistan (1987)]. Recent evidence, however, shows that at the national level, the improvements in the social indicators have not kept pace with such economic transformation. The Pakistan National Institute of Health's national nutrition surveys indicate that the proportion of malnourished children remained roughly the same between 1977 and 1985. In 1985, 10.8 percent of preschool children were below 80 percent of the standard WHO reference weight-for-height (a measure of child wasting or being thin) compared to 8.6 percent in .1977. About 41.8 percent of the preschool children in 1985 were stunted (below 90 percent of standard WHO height-for-age) compared to 43.3 percent in 1977.