Stunting Rate Reduces by 20%

The rate of stunting in children under the age of five has reduced to 7% currently from around 26% in 1990, said Ahmad Meydari, social welfare deputy at the Ministry of Labor, Cooperatives and Social Welfare. “Levels of malnutrition were high among children during the years before and after 1990, but it has reduced to 7% in 2014,” he said at a function on social welfare at the ministry. Childhood stunting, a manifestation of chronic malnutrition, is a condition that is defined as height for age below the fifth percentile on a reference growth curve. Stunting is one of the most used anthropometric indicators in children under five years of age along with wasting (weight to height ratio), and underweight (weight to age ratio), and mid-upper arm circumference, Mehr News Agency reported.