| Sumario: | Undernutrition produces physical and irreversible damage in cognitive capacity, growth disorders, motor and cognitive delays and decreased immunity. In addition, undernutrition increases morbidity and mortality in children under-five. We estimated the factors associated with undernutrition in children under-five in La Guajira, Colombia. We conducted a cross-sectional multivariate analysis, using data of the Colombian National Survey of the Nutritional Situation (ENSIN, in Spanish). We estimated a logit model on the determinants of global malnutrition. The outcome variable was undernutrition, defined as weightfor-age lesser or equal than two standard deviation. We estimated Odds Ratios (OR) adjusted by the sample design in order to assess the risk of each group compared to a reference group. We studied 622 children under-five years, of which 52.7% were men and 55% lived in rural areas. Out of the total, 11.2% of the children had global undernutrition. Being of the sixth child onwards increases the risk of global undernutrition (OR=4.07, CI95%=1.50-10.99). Also, living at homes with sewerage service provides protection against global undernutrition (OR=0.16, CI95%=0.05-0.57). In short, sewerage service and large families were associated with undernutrition in La Guajira, Colombia. To affect these social health determinants would improve the policy of surveillance and control of undernutrition in children under-five years.
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