Cross-sectional anthropometry: what can it tell us about the health of young children?

It has become common practice in health surveys to collect anthropometric measurements from young children. These datasets comprise one-point-in-time measurements for a number of children, and are very different in character from longitudinal data such as those collected during growth monitoring. This paper explores the nature of cross-sectional data, their applications and their limitations, using sample data from Burundi, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Methods of analysis which treat the data as continuous or dichotomous are compared. The conclusion is that cross-sectional data can make a valuable contribution to health research provided their application and interpretation are properly understood.