Relationship of the morbidity of under-fives to anthropometric measurements and community health intervention.

In a 3-year prospective morbidity study in seven villages of northeast Thailand the health of preschool children was assessed every alternate week by questioning the mothers. The nutritional status was determined by weight-for-age, weight-for-height and height-for-age every third month. In four villages active measures were undertaken to improve the health and nutritional status of the children. A child had an average of 2.5 illness episodes and was ill 14.1 days per year. More than 80% of all illness episodes could be accounted to ill-defined infections such as fever and cough with only 5.2% accountable to diarrhoea. A marked decline in the rate of illness episodes was observed in communities where cooperation was good. Weight-for-height is a better indicator for determining children at risk of falling ill than weight-for-age and height-for-age. The duration of illness episodes was not related to the nutritional status.