Figure 1 presents the trend of stunting, wasting and underweight among children under five since 1987. Based on NCHS references or WHO growth standards, the prevalences of stunting and underweight have substantially declined since 1987, but remained at 10-12% for stunting and 10-15% for underweight during the past two decades. Wasting has been relatively low (5%) and no severe malnutrition among young children has been reported as a public health problem since the late 1980s. Despite the economic crisis that hit Thailand in 1997, rates of both stunting and underweight did not increase.
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The prevalence of low birth weight increased slightly (from 8.2% in 1996 to 8.7% in 1998). There was a slight upward trend in school child underweight prevalence (14.9% in 1997),
but this level decreased to 12.5% in the subsequent year.