Relationship between family land availability and nutritional status

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Abstract
A study of the relationship between occupation, land owned and/or rented by the family and nutritional status of two‐ and three‐year‐old children was conducted in four rural Guatemalan villages. Families were divided into three occupational groups: salaried agricultural workers, farmers, and skilled workers and merchants. Nutritional status was defined in terms of weight for age. There was a tendency for the children of skilled workers and merchants to have the lowest prevalence of moderate malnutrition. It was found that 76 percent of families classified as farmers controlled less than five manzanas (one manzana = 0.7 hectares). The relative risk of having moderate malnutrition was 2.3 times greater in the two‐ and three‐year‐old children of families with access to less than two manzanas than in those with access to more than five manzanas.