The field of nutritional assessment has been an active one over the last 20 years. This book - a sequel to the 1966 WHO monograph 'Assessment of Nutritional Status in the Community' - covers recent developments and techniques, as well as long-established practices. Innovations include the influence of epidemiology, anthropology, and economics; emphasis on materno-foetal nutritional surveillance and programme evaluation; description of appropriate technology for primary health care workers; and current views on anthropometric and other 'reference levels'. The authors' main aim is to link the more descriptive investigations of the past to the mathematical criteria of the present. They assemble information from a wide range of scientific disciplines, and suggest practical methods for assessment at varying levels of sophistication. The overriding concern is practicality and usefulness for those working to improve community nutrition in less technically developed countries.