We have defined
undernutrition as being present when a child
was less than 80% expected weight for age
(26). An attempt has been made to separate
“acute” and “chronic” undernutrition by utilizing
the fact that an acutely undernourished
child has a normal height for age, while a
chronically undernourished child is of normal
height for weight but reduced weight for age
(24). No absolute definition of acute undernutrition
in terms of weight for height is
possible (27) but Table 1 illustrates that as
the median weight for height was 97.5% predicted
the undernourished (69%) population
was mainly chronically undernourished.
Table 4 categorizes those subjects of less than
90% of expected weight for actual height as
acutely malnourished.