American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 61, 495-500, Copyright © 1995 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Undernutrition among Bedouin Arab children: a follow-up of the Bedouin Infant Feeding Study

MR Forman, GL Hundt, HW Berendes, K Abu-Saad, L Zangwill, D Chang, I Bellmaker, I Abu-Saad and BI Graubard
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.

After 10 y of urban settlement, 680 Bedouin Arab children, who had had anthropometric assessment from birth (1981-1982) through early childhood, were reassessed in 1991-1992 to compare the rates of stunting in early and later childhood as well as to describe the factors influencing current height-for-age. Stunting had dropped from 32.7% at 18 mo to 7.2% at 10 y in the 1981 birth cohort and dropped from 17.5% at 9 mo to 8.2% at 9 y in the 1982 birth cohort. Based on a multiple-linear-regression analysis, height in early childhood and maternal height were statistically significantly and positively associated with current mean height-for-age in both cohorts. In the 1982 cohort socioeconomic status in early childhood was positively and current family size was negatively and significantly associated with current mean height-for-age. Thus, conditions that were present in early childhood had the largest influence on current height. In 1992, 10% and 6% of the infant siblings of the 1981 and 1982 cohorts, respectively, were stunted compared with 17% and 1% of the siblings aged 1-2 y of the respective cohorts. Therefore, the high rates of early childhood stunting in 1981-1982 appeared to be a birth cohort- specific phenomenon.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. Ohno, K. Hirai, S. Sakata, S. Shimizu, Y. Akai, K. Ogoshi, S. Sherchand, R. Gurung, J.B. Sherchand, and M.P. Shrestha Nutritional Status of People Living in Dzong Village, in the Northern Mountainous Area of Nepal Asia Pac J Public Health, September 1, 2006; 18(3): 20 - 29. [PDF]