Definition
For surviving children born in the three to five years before the survey, HWWTHTPCTRM (HW12) reports the child's weight-for-height as a percent of the median weight in growth charts by height and sex developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Low child weight-for-height, or "wasting," is an indicator of acute malnutrition. The 5th percentile on growth charts has often been used as a screening cutoff to identify infants and children at greater nutritional and health risk.
HWWEIGHT (HW2) reports the child's weight as measured by DHS personnel. HWHEIGHT (HW3) reports the child's measured height in centimeters. The related variable KIDAGEMO (HW1) reports the child's age in months at the time of measurement.
For an alternative measure of child wasting in terms of weight-for-height using the same reference population, see HWWHZNCHS (HW11). HWWHZNCHS reports the difference between the child's weight and the median weight of the CDC reference population of the same height and sex, expressed in units equal to one standard deviation of the reference population's distribution.