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 physical growth and nutritional status of 1,335 children (684 boys, 651 girls), 3-10 years of age, was determined using standard anthropometric techniques. Weight-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height were expressed as Z-scores of the NHANES I and II or NCHS reference sample. A Z-score of less than -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 approximately 0.5 cm per year. Mean weights followed a more consistent pattern from 3-7 years for both sexes, which was parallel to just below the 10(th) 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 and BMI values were lower than the 5(th) centile of NHANES, indicating a significant amount of wasting within the sample. The sample exhibited a high prevalence 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 that the effects of stress may be a gradually accumulating process and that the growth increments of these children became increasingly poor in contrast to those of the reference sample. Since stunting in childhood is permanent, it may lead to a loss of physical work capacity in adulthood. Therefore, further investigation of the cause of poor growth among these rural children is imperative. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.