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Life styles and the nutritional status of children were studied in a coffee, a cotton (intensive) and a basic grain (subsistence) growing region of El Salvador, as well as in populations living in the slums of the capital city, San Salvador. The objectives of the paper were to identify ecological regions with greater magnitude of growth retardation and to describe living patterns that require different social and economic actions in order to reduce the number of people living in deprived conditions in the country.
The data includes information on quantitative characteristics of the population and their environment, summaries of anthropological reports describing life styles and infants’ and children's diets from representative communities of each region, and weight and height of children from 6 to 59 months of age.
A higher proportion of children suffering from weight‐for‐age, and height‐for‐age retardation was observed in the coffee and subsistence regions compared with the intensive and urban slums. The quantitative and descriptive studies identified general and region‐specific social, economic and cultural problems leading to poverty and malnutrition. This suggests that general programs for all regions and specific actions for some regions should be designed in order to effectively combat deprivation and, as a result, to reduce the magnitude of nutritional problems in El Salvador.