Introduction: Much higher mortalities occur in children under five in developing countries with high poverty rates compared with developed countries. Causes of death are related to perinatal conditions, measles, HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, respiratory diseases and others. Throughout the world, malnutrition has been identified as the underlying cause of approximately half of these deaths.
Objective: Death rate due to malnutrition was described using an adjusted method that takes into account the difficulties of identifying malnutrition as a direct cause of death.
Materials and methods: A descriptive study included analysis of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) vital statistics from 2003-2007. Death rates were estimated, a method of analysis of multiple causes was applied for infectious diseases, along with calculations of death probabilities.
Results: Malnutrition was associated with infectious diseases. The frequency of infectious disease as a direct cause of death was almost seven times higher in cases with the antecedent of malnutrition. When adjusted death rate values were used, the initial value increased nearly five times. The probability of death after the adjustment for inadequate classification increased approximately four times. The Analysis of Multiple Causes Method was established as an effective method in analyzing malnutrition and infectious diesease mortality in Colombia.
Conclusion: Malnutrition may be a direct underlying cause of death in one of eight deaths in children <1 year old and one of three deaths in 1-4-year-olds.