Objective:

To estimate malnutrition prevalence of preschool children at the level of municipality in Mexico, describe prevalence heterogeneity and its relationship with the Programa Nacional México Sin Hambre´s coverage.

Materials and methods:

Using the 2012 Mexican National Survey of Health and Nutrition, municipal income inequality and marginality, we applied a generalized normal model to obtain municipal distributions of nutrition status indicators from which we estimated malnutrition prevalence.

Results:

Stunting prevalence ranged from 7.8% (95%CI: 5.9-8.9) to 64.2% (49.2-72.5), low weight prevalence ranged from 0.6% (0.005-1.7) to 22.2% (13.5-34.9) and overweight-obesity prevalence ranged from 2.6% (0.2-3.9) to 14.4% (11.9-27.7). A total of 275 out of 554 municipalities with stunting prevalence above 25% were covered by the Programa Nacional México Sin Hambre.

Conclusions:

Municipal malnutrition prevalence estimation showed wide differences within Mexico; this knowledge could assist public policy.