Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has had anaggregate malnutrition rate of nearly 30 percent for thelast decade. While malnutrition prevalence has decreasedsignificantly in most other developing countries in the lastdecade, it has been nearly static for SSA. This static trendin the percentage of malnourished children, however, doesnot fully reflect the rapidly rising numbers of malnourishedchildren given SSA's high population growth rate. TheLSMS/ISs, or(Living Standards Measurement Survey/Integrated Survey) and PSs (Priority Survey) over the lastdecade provide for the first time data to undertake a morecomprehensive analysis of the factors that could affectmalnutrition in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.Based on LSMS data, determinants of malnutrition areinvestigated for Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Both studiesfind that household expenditure plays an important role inimproving the preschool-age children's long-termnutritional indicator status (height-for-age), but not theshort-term nutritional indicator status (weight-for-height).Nutritional studies have found that linear (height-for-age)growth and ponderal (weight-for-height) growth havedifferent nutritional requirements. Just as overall dietaryinadequacy (also called protein-energy malnutrition) causesstunting, so does deficiency in any of a large number ofmicronutrients. Micronutrients are concentrated in specificfoods and are low or absent in staple grains and legumes.Since the specific foods are often more expensive thanstaples, stunting and wasting may be affected differently byincome. The purpose here is to review the evidence for thisproposition using available data from SSA countries.
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