Nutritional surveillance and morbidity of children under 5 years of age seen in a primary health care unit: historical series 1987-91

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary analysis of the nutritional status assessment (NS) and morbidity of low-income children under 5 years of age seen by the Food and Nutritional Surveillance System of a primary health care unit in Rio de Janeiro between 1987 and 1991. The distribution of lengh/stature for age (LSA) was skewed to the left as early as the first semester of life. Approximately 20% of the children had values of body mass for age (BMA) below the 10th percentile of the reference growth curve (NCHS). The prevalence of stunting (Z LSA < - 2) decreased yearly during the period. The eight most frequent causes of visit to the unit were the same but the frequencies varied from year to year. In the last three years upper respiratory (URD) and digestive diseases (DD) and undernutrition prevailed. NS did not correlate with UPD but the prevalence of DD was inversely associated with BMA percentile. These data indicate relevant growth deficits in the children which justifies the implementation of nutritional surveillance in health units. It is also clear that morbidity and NS must be correlated in future studies, so that, the role of nutritional surveillance is enhanced in the Health Sector.