Nutritional status and growth of indigenous Xavante children, Central Brazil

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to characterize the nutritional status of Xavante Indian children less than 10 years of age in Central Brazil and to evaluate the hypothesis of an association between child nutrition and socioeconomic differentiation in this population.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2006 that included all children under the age of 10 from the Xavante village Pimentel Barbosa in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The data collected included weight, height, and sociodemographic information. Sociodemographic data were used to generate two indices ("income" and "wealth") and to determine the proportion of adults in each household. Descriptive analyses were performed for weight-for-age (W/A), height-for-age (H/A), and weight-for-height (W/H) using the NCHS and the WHO growth references. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using H/A and W/A as a response variables.ResultsOf a total of 246 children under the age of ten residing in the village, 232 (94.3%) were evaluated. Following the NCHS reference, 5.6% of children under the age of ten presented low W/A and 14.7% presented low H/A. Among children under the age of five, deficit percentages for weight and height were 4.5% and 29.9%, respectively, following the WHO curves. Among children < 2 years of age, H/A index variability was found to be directly related to child's age and inversely related to the proportion of adults in the household. Maternal BMI was positively associated with growth for children from 2 to 4 years of age, explaining 11.5% of the z-score variability for the H/A index. For children 5 years of age and older, the wealth index and maternal height were positively associated with H/A. No significant associations were found using W/A as the dependent variable.ConclusionThis study demonstrated that undernutrition, in particular linear growth deficit, is a notable health issue for Xavante children. These findings contrast with the nutritional profile observed among Brazilian children nationally, which is characterized by a sharp decline in child undernutrition in recent decades, even in the poorest regions of the country. This discrepancy calls attention to the persistent health disparities that exist between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Brazil.

Anemia e níveis de hemoglobina em crianças indígenas Xavante, Brasil Central

“…Likewise, diverse studies highlight that infectious and parasitic diseases, especially diarrhea and pneumonia, and undernutrition constitute the principal causes of disease and death among Xavante children. This scenario is consistent with the elevated prevalence of anemia observed in this study [19][20][21] . Age of the child was an important explanatory factor for hemoglobin concentration and prevalence of anemia among the Xavante, which is comparable with observations from other studies of Indigenous [4][5][6]14 and non-Indigenous populations 22,23 in Brazil.…”

Magnitude of Stunting and Associated Factors Among 6-59 Months Old Children in Hossana Town, Southern Ethiopia

“…Based on the findings, the prevalence of stunting in this study was 35.4% (34.6-36.3 95% C.I).This study was in line with study conducted in Ghana, 36% [13]. The magnitude of stunting in this study was higher than study conducted in Peru 26.6% [14], Brazil 29.9% [15], Sirlanka 11.8% [16], South Africa 20.2% [17] and Egypt 13.8% [18] and the national prevalence in EDHS 2006, 29.8% [10] and EDHS done in 2011, 32% [9]. However, the prevalence of stunting in the study was lower than study conducted in, Nepal 37% [19], India 51.6% [20], Lao PDR 40% [21], Cambodia 38.6% [22] also the study conducted in Democratic Republic of Congo 43.9% [23] ,Uganda 41.6% [24], Tanzania 44% [25], Kenya 40% [26], Sudan Khartoum 51% [27] and Ethiopia 42% [28].…”

Prevalence of Stunting and Thinness Among Adolescent Girls Belonging to the Rajbanshi Population of West Bengal, India

“…Anthropometry is a widely used, inexpensive and non-invasive technique available to researchers for the assessment of the body composition and nutritional status among children and adults [11][12][13][14][15] . For the assessing nutritional status of adolescents, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended the use of low height-for-age (stunting) and low-BMI-for-age (thinness) 4,16 with the former indicating chronic undernutrition and the later indicating acute undernutrition 4,8,10 .…”