Malnutrition is one of the most important health and welfare problems among infants and young children in Mali. It is a result of both inadequate food intake and disease. Inadequate food intake is a consequence of insufficient food
available at the household level and improper feeding practices. Infectious diseases, particularly diarrhea, acute respiratory illness, malaria and measles, result from inadequate health care, poor environmental sanitation and insufficient water supplies. Both inadequate food intake and disease reflect underlying social and economic conditions.

Among the significant health and economic consequences of malnutrition, the most serious is an increased risk of death. Other adverse consequences include an increased risk of illness, lower cognitive development and poor pregnancy outcomes.

The Mali data analyzed here are from the 1995-96 Mali Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS-II), a nationally representative survey of 8,716 households conducted by the Cellule de Planification et de Statistique, Ministère de la
Santé, de la Solidarité et des Personnes Âgées, and the Direction Nationale de la Statistique et de lInformatique, Bamako. Technical assistance was provided by Macro International Inc. and funding was provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Fieldwork was conducted between November 1995 and April 1996. Of the 5,237 living children age 0-35 months that were included in the MDHS-II, 4,678 with complete date of birth and anthropometric data are included in these analyses. Nutrition-related information collected on these children include height, weight, age, breastfeeding history, and feeding patterns. Information was also collected on diarrhea, fever and cough in the two weeks prior to the survey and on relevant sociodemographic characteristics. For comparison purposes, data are presented from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in other sub-Saharan countries.

An earlier nutrition chartbook was published in 1993 based on data from the 1987 Mali Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS-I). Where applicable, findings from the MDHS-II have been compared with those from the MDHS-I.
A minor difference between the first and second chartbooks is that the second chartbook presents anthropometric data for children 0 to 35 months, whereas the first presented anthropometric data for children 3 to 36 months. Comparisons in the text between 1987 and 1995-96 thus apply to the overlapping 3 to 35 month age-range. Other slight differences in presentation between the two chartbooks result from modifications in the MDHS survey design between 1987 and 1995-96.