Nutritional status of children under the age of 5 years in northern Gazankulu. A cross-sectional assessment.

A cross-sectional study of the nutritional status of 658 children under 5 years of age was carried out in one district in Gazankulu. Of these children, 29,8% were below the 3rd percentile of weight for age of the 1976 National Center for Health Statistics standards; in the 1 - 2-year age group this figure was 38,2%. A small group, 1,8%, weighed less than 60% of expected weight for age. The presence of a clinic in a village seems to have no influence on the percentage of underweight children.