11. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS AND ADEQUATE NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN A FOLLOW OP STUDY

Abstract

Undernutrition is associated to low sociocultural environment. It has also been described a clear relationship between Undernutrition early in life, and poor growth and development afterwards, that can be reverted with an adequate treatment. Interested in this problem we studied 283 families of extreme poverty whose infants were treated before two years of age in a closed nutritional recovery center (CCNR). They all were severely undernourished according to WHO standards W/A 63.05 ± 8.4 at admission and stayed 133.7 ± 45 days in the center being discharged and recovered to a relation W/A 81.64 ± 9. This group has been followed up during nine years by the same professional team. After 8 years of follow up we study 37 socioeconomic items known to be important to discriminate socioeconomic level, so we could separate the sample in four groups. Once separated in groups we correlated socioeconomic level with anthropometric characteristic of the infants during the follow up period and we found that mothers scholarity, environmental sanitation and stability in the organization of the family correlated positively with a good nutrition evolution during the follow up (p < 0.05, < 0.01, < 0.02, respectively). Instead, the presence of another malnourished infant in the family, father's alcoholism were related to a bad prognosis. This study let us conclude that an adequate nutritional treatment must include the family. Otherwise all that is a gained during CNRC treatment is lost afterwards, specially if there is another malnourished infant at home and if the head of the family is an alcoholic.