Demographic and Health Survey 2009-10 - Timor-Leste Ministry of ...

It is further observed that the highest proportion of overweight children (+2 SD) is in the age
group less than age 6 months, with 17 percent of children in that age group being overweight. There is
hardly any difference between urban and rural areas in the proportions of children overweight.
Looking at district patterns, the prevalence of overweight children ranges from 1 percent in Oecussi
and Aileu to 11 percent in Baucau. Although variations by mother’s level of education and wealth
quintile are not large, the highest proportions of overweight children are seen among the most
educated mothers and mothers who live in households in the second quintile.
Table 12.1 and Figure 12.1 show that the percentage of children who are underweight
increases sharply, from 15 percent among children under age 6 months to 25 percent among children
age 6-8 months, to 29 percent among children age 9-11 months, and to above 40 percent among
children age 12 months and older. This may be due to inappropriate and/or inadequate feeding
practices because the increasing levels of children who are underweight for their age coincides with
the age at which normal complementary feeding starts. Children who are reported to be very small in
size at birth are more likely to be underweight (54 percent) compared with those children who are
reported to be average or larger in size at birth (44 percent). Children living in rural areas are more
likely to be underweight (47 percent) compared with those children living in urban areas (35 percent).
Children of mothers with low BMI, those with no education, and those belonging to households in the
lowest wealth quintile are most likely to be underweight.
12.1.2 Trends in Children’s Nutritional Status
The results of the 2009-10 TLDHS show children’s nutritional status compared with the
status from earlier surveys conducted in Timor-Leste. However, several factors make direct
comparisons difficult. Because the data in the previous surveys were analyzed based on the
NCHS/CDC/WHO international reference population, it was necessary to re-calculate the current data
accordingly to make it comparable. Therefore, comparison of data on nutritional status of children
should be made with caution.
The data from the 2009-10 TLDHS and Figure 12.2, indicate that there has been a slight rise
in the level of stunting, wasting, and underweight over the past 6 years. Stunting increased from 49
percent to 53 percent, wasting increased from 12 percent to 17 percent, and underweight increased
from 46 percent to 52 percent 2 . The results indicate that achieving the Millennium Development Goal
of a 50 percent reduction in the prevalence of underweight children under 5 years of age by the year
2015 continues to be a challenge.
It can be further noted that, with use of the new WHO Child Growth Standards, the nutritional
status of children can be compared using data from the 2007 Living Standard Survey and the current
2009-10 TLDHS. Figure 12.3 shows that malnutrition has remained high in general, and the
proportion of children who have chronic malnutrition has increased from 54 percent to 58 percent.
However, the proportion of children who are wasted has decreased from 25 percent to 19 percent,
while the proportion of children who are severely wasted has remained the same over the time period.
Similarly, the percentage of underweight children has declined, with an 8 percent decline occurring in
the past two years. However, the percentage of severely underweight children has remained the same.
These findings indicate that the effort to reduce malnutrition among children is showing some positive
results but still has a long way to go.
2 Comparison should be carried with caution as there are overlaps in the confidence interval of these estimates.
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