THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERNAL AND CHILD NUTRITIONAL-STATUS IN RURAL GUINEA

It has become common public practice to consider the nutritional statu s of children under five years (as measured by anthropometry) as a bar ometer for the population as a whole, even though no published literat ure confirms the relationship between the nutritional status of differ ent demographic segments of the population. This study investigates th e relationship between maternal and child anthropometry using data fro m a regional cross-sectional survey recently undertaken in the Republi c of Guinea. The degree of correlation between maternal and child anth ropometry is assessed and the performance of child anthropometric stat us as a screening tool for maternal anthropometric status is evaluated using various epidemiologic techniques. The major finding of this stu dy is that although maternal and child anthropometric indices includin g receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis are significantly co rrelated, the magnitude of correlation is modest. More importantly, ma ternal malnutrition exists in many households where children are free of malnutrition and vice versa. The findings of this research suggest that the common practice of limiting nutritional assessment to under-f ives may result in important inaccuracies in evaluating community nutr itional problems.