摘要：We performed a cross-sectional, community-based survey, supplemented by interviews with community leaders in Chiapas, Mexico, to examine the prevalence and predictors of child malnutrition in regions affected by the Zapatista conflict. The prevalence rates of stunting, wasting, and underweight were 54.1%, 2.9%, and 20.3%, respectively, in 2666 children aged younger than 5 years. Stunting was associated with indigenous ethnicity, poverty, region of residence, and intracommunity division. The results indicate that malnutrition is a serious public health problem in the studied regions. In Chiapas, Mexico, long-standing conflicts related to land tenure, religion, and other issues have been further complicated by an armed conflict between the Mexican government and the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (“the Zapatistas”), which began in 1994 over Zapatista demands that the Mexican government address the alarming poverty conditions among the indigenous population. Social polarization and intolerance have led to forced displacement of more than 16000 Chiapanecan citizens, politically motivated violence (including murder), and intracommunity divisions so complete as to have produced villages within which separate governments, clinics, schools, justice systems, and other services for adherents of the separate factions operate. 2 – 5 We postulated that chronic interparty and intracommunity conflict in Chiapas might be associated with malnutrition, particularly stunting, in children. Because no published studies have addressed this question in this setting, we sought to describe the prevalence of malnutrition in children aged younger than 5 years in the 3 Chiapanecan regions most adversely affected by the Zapatista conflict and its association with various socioeconomic and conflict-related factors.
