Socioeconomic factors associated with child health and nutrition in peri‐urban Zimbabwe

Relationships between the nutritional status of children and several dimensions of socioeconomic status were investigated during the rainy season for 277 children under 5 years of age. The study took place in Chitungwiza, a peri‐urban community in Zimbabwe in 1985, five years after its political independence. Three measures of nutrition — underweight, stunting and wasting — were used. Variation in nutritional status was explained principally by the socioeconomic status of parents which included education, occupation, income, and housing tenure. Other important factors were being born in modern health facilities, absence of disease, normal birth weight, expenditures on food, protein intake, and low crowding.