Protein-calorie malnutrition in Candelaria, Colombia. I. Prevalence; social and demographic causal factors.

Abstract

This study examines the relationships of various sociodemographic factors (accident of birth factors; cultural; maternal; economic; family size) and the nutritional status of children. A survey was conducted and covered 506 families in which there were 1094 children under the age of 6 corresponding to 23% of the total population. Anthropometric measurements of children and data concerning mothers from all 506 families were collected as were complete socioeconomic data from a random sample of 354 families which included 721 of the children. Nutritional status of the children was evaluated using the system of Gomez et al from the Hospital Infantil in Mexico (1955). The Gomez system is a simple comparison of observed bodyweight and expected normal weight for age based on a standard derived from well-nourished children. More than 40% of the children were classified as malnourished with children between the ages of 12 and 36 months constituting the most vulnerable age-group. The commonly considered causal factors poverty and ignorance as well as other social and demographic factors interacted with each other in the complex web of causation. The findings also show that it is the mother who transmits these factors thus determining the nutritional status of the child. The mother too is affected by some of these factors. Nowhere is the interaction of social and biological factors in disease causation more apparent than in PCM (protein-calorie malnutrition). The problem is biological at the cellular level (cells require proper variety of nutrients if normal metabolism and growth are to be maintained) but becomes complicated when social and cultural factors affecting delivery of such nutrients becomes the issue. If the mothers in Candelaria can limit their family size and they have expressed their desire to do so evidence shows that the nutritional status of preschool children there would improve.