Background: In Mexico, despite that the fact that several social
programs have been implemented, chronic undernutrition is still a
public health problem affecting 1.5 million children of <5 years.
Chiapas ranks first in underweight and stunting at national level with
a stunting prevalence of 31.4 % whereas for its rural population is
44.2 %. The purpose of this paper is to determine if the nutritional
status of a cohort of children living in poor rural communities under
Oportunidades has changed. We were interested in assessing the
nutrition evolution of the children who were initially diagnosed as
stunted and of those who were diagnosed as normal. Oportunidades is an
anti-poverty program of the Mexican government consisting mainly in
monetary transfers to the families living in alimentary poverty.
Methods: A 9-year cohort prospective study was conducted with
nutritional evaluations of 222 children. Anthropometric indices were
constructed from measurements of weight, height, and age of the
children whose nutritional status was classified following WHO
standards. Results: The results showed that although these children
were Oportunidades beneficiaries for 9 years and their families
improved their living conditions, children still had a high prevalence
of stunting (40.1 %) and 69.6 % had not recovered yet. Children who
were initially diagnosed with normal nutritional status and became
stunted 2 years later had a higher risk (relative risk (RR) 5.69,
2.95\u201310.96) of continuing stunted at school age and adolescence.
Conclusions: Oportunidades has not impacted, as expected, the
nutritional status of the study population. These findings pose the
question: Why has not the nutritional status of children improved,
although the living conditions of their families have significantly
improved? This might be the result of an adaptation process achieved
through a decrease of growth velocity. It is important to make efforts
to watch the growth of the children during their first 3 years of age,
to focus on improving the diet of women at fertile age and pay special
attention to environmental conditions to break the vicious cycle of
malnutrition