What is the Prevalence of Stunting in Infants in Indonesia?

Poverty and parents' low level of knowledge regarding child health are significant contributing factors to the high prevalence of stunting (children under the standard height for their age) in Indonesian infants. This has resulted in many Indonesian children experiencing nutritional deficiencies from the fetal stage to the age of 24 months (the first 1,000 days).

Based on the 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas), the proportion of Indonesian children under five years old (toddlers) experiencing stunting reached 37.2%. Then, based on the 2016 Nutritional Status Monitoring (PSG), the prevalence of stunting decreased to 27.5%. However, the prevalence of stunting in toddlers rose again to 29.6% in the 2017 PSG. This figure comprises 9.8% of toddlers in the severely short category and 19.8% in the short category.

According to WHO standards, an area is considered to have an acute malnutrition problem if the prevalence of stunting is equal to or greater than 20% or the prevalence of wasted children is above 5%. Meanwhile, the proportion of short children in Indonesia currently remains above 29% and is targeted to decrease to 28% by 2019.