This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the nutritional status among children
less than five years in Ondo East (a rural) and Ondo West (an urban) Local Government Areas (LGAs) of
Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria. A multi-stage stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select 420
(rural) and 406 (urban) households’ caregiver-child (6-59 months) pairs in the LGAs in September, 2012. A
structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to assess socio-economic characteristics and
nutritional status of the respondents. The nutritional status of the children was determined using
anthropometric measurements; height for age, weight for age and weight for height, expressed as standard
deviation (SD) units, with children that were <-2 SD considered as stunted, underweight and wasted
respectively. The results showed that 24.5% of respondents in the rural areas were stunted vs 13.5% in
urban, 16.9% were under-weight in rural vs 6.2% in urban and 0.3% were wasted in rural vs 1.3% in Urban.
Malnutrition was common among under-five children in the rural areas compared to the urban.