Definition
For household members under age 5 who were potential subjects for height and weight measurement, HWCHTAPCT (HC4) reports their height-for-age percentile, based on smoothed percentile growth charts by age and sex developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Low child height-for-age, or "stunting," is an indicator of chronic 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.
HWCHEIGHT (HC3) reports the young household member's length or height as measured by DHS personnel. See this variable and HWCHTHOWMEAS (HC15) for specifics on length/height measurement. The related variable AGEMOHHLT5 (HC1) reports the young household member's age in months at the time of measurement.
For an alternative measure of stunting in terms of height-for-age for the same reference population, see HWCHAZNCHS (HC5). HWCHAZNCHS reports the difference between the young household member's height and the median height of the CDC reference population of the same age and sex, expressed in units equal to one standard deviation of the reference population's distribution.
