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Cross‐sectional growth of young Shipibo Indian children in Eastern Peru
Author(s) -
Hodge Linda G.,
Dufour Darna L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330840104
Subject(s) - demography , health statistics , malnutrition , cross sectional study , population , amazon basin , developing country , pediatrics , linear growth , medicine , geography , amazon rainforest , biology , ecology , pathology , sociology , mathematics
This paper reports measurements of weight and recumbent length for a cross‐sectional sample of 149 Shipibo infants and children between birth and 35.99 months of age from eight villages in the Peruvian Amazon Basin. The Shipibo are an Amerindian population experiencing a period of local environmental disruption and rapid cultural change. Compared with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references values, Shipibo children are smaller and shorter than American children. The differences are least at birth. Deficits in linear growth begin between 3 and 6 months of age and continue through 35.99 months of age. Weight‐for‐length ratios are generally adequate compared to the NCHS values in all age groups. This pattern of growth is similar to that reported for non‐Amerindians in many developing countries and is assumed to represent a pattern of growth under mild‐to‐moderate undernutrition. High infant mortality rates suggest that an interaction of suboptimal nutrition and infectious diseases is contributing to the pattern of growth retardation seen; however, genetic differences cannot yet be discounted.