NUTRITIONAL-STATUS OF PARAKANA INDIAN - C HILDREN FROM BIRTH THROUGH 5-YEARS-OF-AGE, EASTERN AMAZONIA, BRAZIL

The evolution of the nutritional status of children under 5 years of a ge living in two Indian settlements of the Parakana tribe, Maroxewara and Paratininga, situated in the southest of Para State (Brazil), with less than 20 years of direct contact with our society, was studied. T he main purpose of this study was to register the effects of the preve ntive and curative health activities of the ''Parakana Program'' (crea ted by an agreement between the National Indian Foundation- FUNAI and Northern Hydroelectric Project- ELETRONORTE), undertaken with the tech nical cooperation of the Tropical Medicine Center (Federal University of Para). Anthropometric data were obtained in there cross-sectional s tudies (April 89; January 90 and October 91) for the purpose of evalua ting the prevalence of malnutrition by means of Gomez's, Waterlow's an d WHO criteria. The evolution of nutritional status was evaluated in t he light of the rate of growth and accepting weight increments superio r to those expected among well-nourished children as a goal. Seventy c hildren (87.5% of all the 0-5 years-olds living there) were followed t hrough throughout the studies. Prevalence of malnutrition was greater in Paranatinga than in Maroxewara, possibly because the former was mor e populous and had had longer inter-racial contact. Paranatinga's anth ropometric indices (wt/age, ht/age and wt/ht) were the lower. Most of the severe forms of malnutrition were found there too. Children betwee n six months and 2 years old were the most affected. There had occurre d an overall 76.1 % decrease in the prevalence of malnutriotion. The p rimary health care given has been successful after eight months of act ivities, mainly in Paratininga. The increase of the wt/age index was p roportional to the initial severity of the malnutrition various of the socio-cultural features observed might explain the differences in pre valences reported in this paper.