Growth and nutritional status of rural south African children 3-10 years old: The Ellisras growth study

This study presents cross-sectional data from an ongoing mixed-longitudinal study of growth of rural children from Ellisras, South Africa. The physica l growth and nutritional status of 1,335 children (684 boys, 651 girls), 3- 10 years of age, was determined using standard anthropometric techniques. W eight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height were expressed as Z-sc ores of the NHANES I and II or NCHS reference sample. A Z-score of less tha n -2 was used as the cut-off point to determine the prevalence of stunting and wasting. Mean heights increased parallel to the 50(th) centile up to 6 years of age, thereafter both sexes diverged from the NHANES reference by a pproximately 0.5 cm per year. Mean weights followed a more consistent patte rn from 3-7 years for both sexes, which was parallel to just below the 10(t h) centile, but diverged between 8 and 10 years of age. Z-scores of weight- for-height in both sexes varied between -1 to -2 throughout the age range a nd BMI values were lower than the 5(th) centile of NHANES, indicating a sig nificant amount of wasting within the sample. The sample exhibited a high p revalence of stunting, rising from less than 10% at 7 years to more than 30 % by 10 years of age. Increments of the mean heights and weights indicate t hat the effects of stress may be a gradually accumulating process and that the growth increments of these children became increasingly poor in contras t to those of the reference sample. Since stunting in childhood is permanen t, it may lead to a loss of physical work capacity in adulthood. Therefore, further investigation of the cause of poor growth among these rural childr en is imperative. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.