“Household purchasing‐power deficit” A more operational indicator to express malnutrition

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Abstract
Since poverty is an important underlying cause of malnutrition, attacking poverty's determinants will be the only way to overcome malnutrition as a social problem. Expressing nutritional deficiencies as purchasing‐power deficits appears to be of greater operational relevance than the alternative of expressing malnutrition in terms of nutrient deficits, as is done classically. Consumer expenditure best defines poverty and therefore, it is postulated that it also best predicts nutritional status, given the high correlation of the Iatter with income. It makes sense then, to express nutritional deficiencies in the units of its primary determinant (money) if one genuinely desires to improve nutrition and combat poverty. Details on how to arrive at this new proposed indicator of malnutrition are given, and its potential uses and/or abuses in development planning are discussed.

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