Intra-household correlations of nutritional status in rural Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND It is commonly believed that households are relatively homogeneous with respect to nutritional status and occurrence of diseases. We therefore examined how anthropometric measurements are correlated between different household members in famine-prone Ethiopian communities. METHODS We studied 1147 people in the Elka village in the Rift Valley. RESULTS The results show that the correlations between the state of nutrition among household individuals are weak. Thus, anthropometric indices of young children, older children and adult men are an inefficient means of screening for maternal malnutrition. The low sensitivity and high specificity suggest that intra-household members may not fully share risk factors for malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS We question the commonly held view on the use of childhood nutritional indicators as proxies of household nutritional risks. Our study may have practical implications for screening programmes and interventions during famines. There is no short cut to separate screening of population subgroups.