Parents’ estimation of their children's body size compared to classification of children's nutritional status using the international growth reference

Datos Bibliográficos

ID14722124
AutoresT Moffat (0000-0002-9273-0339, McMaster University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2000
Volumen39
Número4
Páginas311-329
Fecha de publicación2000-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEcology of Food and Nutrition (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0367-0244 • E-ISSN: 1543-5237
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03670244.2000.9991621
OpenAlexW2045314479
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas30

While debates abound about the appropriateness of using an international growth reference in low‐income countries and the use of cut‐off points as diagnostics for malnutrition, there is little discussion about the relevance of anthropometric assessment of children for the population of concern. While the issue of cultural appropriateness may appear to be an arcane anthropological question, it does have wider applied significance in the field in terms of involving parents in growth monitoring programs and community nutrition surveillance. In a sample of 283 parents (mostly mothers) participating in a child health and nutrition study in peri‐urban Kathmandu, Nepal, a majority of parents (68.4%) whose children were classified by NCHS standards as moderately‐to‐severely malnourished (i.e. below the ‐2SD cut‐off for ht/age and wt/age) deemed them to be small in size. When children were divided into age groups, it was found that parents were very accurate at labelling their children as “small” when their children were under 36 months of age and much less accurate when they were between 36 and 60 months of age. Parents’ perception of smallness of their children based on ‘ranking’ is sensitive and reasonably correlated with objective growth measures. Parents’ opinions regarding the nutritional and health status of their children should be taken seriously and be incorporated into growth monitoring and community surveillance programs

Anthropometry · Developing country · Economic growth · Environmental health · Malnutrition · Pathology · Population · Ranking (information retrieval · Weight for Age · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Demography · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet · Pediatrics