Zinc supplementation may counter the age-related decrease in MUAC often observed in preschool children in developing countries. The study provides evidence that zinc may not be the most limiting nutrient for weight gain in children of poor nutritional status, but may become so as nutritional status improves.

Background: Despite Uganda's recent economic success, malnutrition is still an important public health problem and little information is available on socio-economic risk factors for severe protein energy malnutrition. Conclusion:There seems to be a strong association between severe malnutrition and some indicators of poverty, lack of breastfeeding, and failure to complete immunisation. Programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, promotion of breastfeeding and immunisation, will go a long way in preventing malnutrition.

Objective: To establish dietary and socio-economic factors and their association with the nutritional status of pre-school children in a poor suburb of Kampala city, Uganda. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Three nursery schools in a low income suburb of Kampala city, Uganda. Subjects: A sub-sample of forty one randomly selected pre-school children (three to six years of age) from a larger intervention study, participated in the present investigation. Results:The results reveal high levels of chronic malnutrition (stunting and underweight) among the children. Almost half (46.3%) and one third (29.3%) of the children had height-for-age and weight-for-age centiles, respectively, below the 20 th centile. The father's educational status was significantly (p = 0.017) associated with the children's nutritional status with all the children whose fathers had tertiary education and above having better weight-for-age centiles (above the 50 th ). Economic status too was significantly (p = 0.026) associated with the nutritional status of the children with children from the upper and mid-upper socio-economic classes having better weight-for-age centiles than children from the lower socio-economic status. Analysis of the diet showed a significant association between the nutrition status of the children and some of the foods consumed. Children who were above the 50 th weight-for-age centiles consumed significantly more bread (p = 0.008) and light-green-leafy vegetables (p = 0.020) than those who had lower weight-for-age centiles. Children who were above their 50 th height-for-age centiles consumed significantly (p = 0.049) more soybeans than children who had lower height-for-age centiles. Conclusion: Socio-economic as well as dietary factors were found to be inextricably linked and have been shown to be significantly associated with the nutritional status in this group of suburban pre-school children in Kampala city, Uganda.