Nutritional status of indigenous children younger than five years of age in Mexico: results of a national probabilistic survey

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence of undernutrition and anemia in indigenous and non-indigenous children 0.05). The prevalence of anemia in indigenous children was one third greater than in non-indigenous children at the national level (p0.05) in rural areas. These differences were reduced to about half when adjusting for SES but remained significantly higher in indigenous children (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Indigenous children have higher probabilities of stunting and underweight than non-indigenous children. The differences are larger in urban areas and in higher socioeconomic geographic regions and are explained mostly by socioeconomic factors. The overall difference in the probability of anemia is small, is higher only in urban relative to rural areas, and is explained to a lesser degree by socioeconomic factors. Policy and programs should be designed and implemented to reduce the dramatic differences in nutritional status between indigenous and non-indigenous children in Mexico.

Keywords

• indigenous children under five years of age
• undernutrition
• stunting
• wasting
• anemia
• Mexico