Premium
THE RELATION OF SIZE AT BIRTH AND PRESCHOOL CLINICAL SEVERE MALNUTRITION
Author(s) -
CRAVIOTO J.,
DELICARDIE E. R.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1974.tb04850.x
Subject(s) - malnutrition , medicine , pediatrics , birth weight , low birth weight , early childhood , cohort study , cohort , longitudinal study , growth retardation , pregnancy , psychology , developmental psychology , genetics , biology , pathology
. Cravioto, J. and DeLicardie, E. R. (Scientific Research Division, Hospital del Niño IMAN, México, D. F., México). The relation of size at birth and preschool clinical severe malnutrition. Acta Paediatr Scand 63: 577, 1974.—Examination of the relationship between infant's size at birth and occurrence of postnatal severe malnutrition is important because if size at birth predicts the development of malnutrition in childhood identification of children at risk and prevention could he carried on more efficiently. The opportunity for such an analysis presented itself when in the course of a longitudinal study beginning at birth of 334 infants, 22 developed severe malnutrition, despite the fact that all children were examined on a biweekly basis, growth failures identified, infectious illness treated, and the parents given advice (which they did not follow) on the appropriate feeding and care of the child. Mean weight, length, head, chest and arm circumferences and skinfold thickness at birth were almost identical between the group of index cases and the whole birth cohort. Variaqces in each of these measures were also equivalent. Levels of association among growth measures were not significantly different. No association obtained between size at birth and age at which severe malnutrition occurred. Neither true prematures nor small‐for‐date infants were overrepresented in the malnourished group. The hypothesis that infants with presumably higher nutritional requirements are at greatest risk of developing severe malnutrition is not sustained by the data.