Description:
<jats:p>We used data from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2006 from all federal entities and defined stunting and overweight/obesity (in children 2–5 y old) according to WHO criteria. Inequality levels were defined through tertiles of the Gini index. Our models included two indicator variables for medium and high income inequality, GDP per capita and schooling for each federal entity, age and sex interactions with all covariates. The prevalence of stunting was 11.6% at the lowest inequality level, 16.6% at the medium level and 19.3% at the highest inequality level. Prevalence of stunting at the medium and high inequality levels (16.6% and 19.3%, respectively) were statistically different from the prevalence at the lowest inequality level (11.6%; P=0.014 and P=0.002 respectively), no sex differences were found. Girls’ prevalence of overweight/obesity was 29.1%, 22.6% and 27.5% at the low, medium and high inequality levels, respectively. Boys’ prevalence of overweight/obesity at the high inequality level was higher than prevalence from the low (P=0.001) and medium (P=0.005) inequality levels. Our results indicate that after controlling for income there is a positive association between stunting and income inequality and a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity at the high inequality level for Mexican boys.</jats:p>