Inequities in under-five child nutritional status in South Africa: What progress has been made?

Figures & data

Figure 1: Prevalence of stunting by gross national income per head (purchasing power parity estimates, US$), 2007–10

Note: GNI, Gross National Income; PPP, purchasing power parity.
Sources: UNICEF (2009), World Bank (2010).

Table 1: Characteristics of children aged six to 59 months whose anthropometric measurements were and were not taken, 1993 and 2008 surveys

	Stunting		Wasting		Underweight		CIF
	Measured	Not measured	Measured	Not measured	Measured	Not measured	Measured	Not measured
1993 survey
Female (%)	49	50	50	49	50	50	50	49
Urban (%)	41	32	41	32	41	32	41	33
African (%)	83	89	83	89	83	89	83	89
PCE^a	228	194	227	201	227	198	227	201
2008 survey
Female (%)	48	51	47	51	47	52	47	51
Urban (%)	49	62	48	60	49	62	48	62
African (%)	87	81	86	82	82	86	86	82
PCE^a	294	337	293	331	297	332	296	328

^aHousehold per-capita expenditure (Rand per month).

Figure 2: Prevalence of money-metric poverty, 2008

Table 2: Prevalence of stunting, wasting, underweight, the composite index of failure and poverty among children aged six to 59 months (%)

Year	Stunting	Wasting	Underweight	CIF	Poverty headcount
1993	30.8	9.2	15.6	39.7	69.6
2008	24.6	4.8	8.8	32.1	73.4

Figure 3: Kernel density estimates of the distribution of the anthropometric z-scores of children aged six to 59 months, 1993 and 2008

Figure 4: Prevalence of anthropometric deficits among children aged six to 59 months, 2008

Figure 5: Anthropometric z-scores of children aged six to 59 months by decile based on their household's per-capita expenditure, 1993 and 2008

Figure 6: Cumulative proportion of stunted children aged six to 59 months by decile based on their household's per-capita expenditure, 1993 and 2008

Table 3: Fitted odds of anthropometric deficit, children aged six to 59 months

	Stunting	Wasting	Underweight	CIF
Gender (baseline: girls)
Boys	1.17	0.79	1.22	1.22
Residence (baseline: rural)
Urban	0.84	2.29	1.18	0.98
Province (baseline: KwaZulu-Natal)
Western Cape	0.77	0.35	1.78	0.91
Eastern Cape	1.72*	0.46	1.93	1.88*
Northern Cape	1.65	1.42	2.28	1.78
Free State	2.27*	0.61	3.33*	2.24*
North West	1.55	1.97	2.80*	1.93*
Gauteng	2.43*	1.38	2.34	2.69*
Mpumalanga	1.06	1.51	2.19	1.39
Limpopo	1.92*	2.19	4.08*	2.36*
Population group (baseline: African)
Coloured	2.36*	0.72	1.25	1.91*
Asian/Indian	0.11*	..	0.58	0.19*
White	1.30	5.11	0.83	1.97
Mother's highest grade (baseline: matriculated)
None to Grade 3	0.98	2.42*	1.73	1.20
Grades 4 to 6	1.11	1.56	2.62*	1.29
Grades 7 to 9	1.10	1.27	1.44	1.12
Grades 10 to 11	1.09	0.76	0.99	1.03
Continuous variables
Log(PCE)^a	1.10	0.72	1.24	1.05
Household size	1.01	0.99	1.01	1.00
Durable asset score	0.72*	0.73	0.64	0.67*
Housing score	0.97	0.94	0.90	0.97
Age (months)	0.99	0.98	1.00	0.99*
Constant	0.14*	0.09	0.01*	0.22*

^aHousehold per-capita expenditure (Rand per month). *Significant at p < 0.05.

UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund). 2009. Progress of Nations, Stunting in Children Under Age 5 UNICEF, New York. http://www.unicef.org/pon00/leaguetos1.htm Accessed 15 January 2012.

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World Bank, 2010. Gross National Income Per Capita 2010, Atlas Method and PPP. World Bank, Washington, DC. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GNIPC.pdf Accessed 15 January 2012.

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