In Mauritania, as in many developing countries, malnutrition in children under five is a public health problem, one of the control strategies for which is the anthropometric assessment of nutritional status. Child malnutrition is conventionally assessed by three indicators of nutritional status made up of anthropometric measurement indices, namely wasting (weight/height), stunting (height/age) and underweight (weight/age). However, these indicators are criticized for underestimating the prevalence of malnutrition since these overlap. The objective of this study is to assess the nutritional status of children through these aforementioned indices using MICS 2015–2016 data from Mauritania.

The data for this study are through these anthropometric indices mentioned above using data from a Multiple Indicator Cluster survey [MICS5 Mauritania (2015–2016)]. To assess the nutritional status and estimate the situation of children and women in Mauritania at the national, regional level, in the area of residence and for certain socio-demographic characteristics of the households (Enquête par Grappes à Indicateurs Multiples 2007).

The study involved 8927 healthy children aged 0 to 59months (5025 subjects from rural areas, 3902 from urban areas), randomly selected during their visit to maternal and child health offices.

Data on socio-economic and demographic level were collected using a questionnaire. Several variables were collected to characterize the mothers of the children surveyed, including age, household size, number of children, occupation, level of education, occupation of head of household and type of housing.

Of the three anthropometric indices used to assess the nutritional status of children: weight-height, weight-age, height-age, only the weight-height index was retained for the study. It has the advantage of examining the short-term effects of malnutrition and of measuring the prevalence of global acute, moderate and severe malnutrition. This index was used in these two forms: weight/length, in children under 5years old, and weight/height for children 0 to 5years old. The data were entered and analyzed by the SPSS software (version 10). The association between potential risk factors and malnutrition is measured using a logistic regression model.

The results show that all the children studied (8927), 50.50% are boys, 49.50% are girls; 43.71% reside in urban areas; 56.29% in rural areas. The average age of the children is 31.9months±15.5months and the average height is 86.8cm±11.9cm and the average weight is 11.35kg±2.95kg. The prevalence of malnutrition among children is 29.58% are stunted, 25.81% underweight and 14.91% wasted. The prevalence of child malnutrition is significantly related to age and area of residence, while the male and female sex of the children surveyed was greater in rural than urban areas. The age and educational level of mothers play a key role in child malnutrition. Based on our results, we propose a series of economic and social policy measures that would take into account all of these factors and help improve the nutritional status of children aged between 0 and 5 in Mauritania.

Malnutrition is a major health problem in the Sahel and Mauritania. The nutritional status of the mothers of the children, the place of residence, the ethnicity and the age of the children negatively influence the nutritional status of the children. Indeed, the causes are multifactorial and require joint interventions which imply integrated actions with certainly socio-health components but also of food security, education … This imposes an intersectoral development policy beyond the fight against malnutrition. Given the failure to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, decision-makers should take into account other relevant suggestions, such as those shown in this document, in the monitoring and care of failed children. anthropometric. This could help combat more strategically the malnutrition raging in Mauritania in order to achieve the second target of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.