Cross-sectional survey of growth of urban and rural “cape coloured” schoolchildren: anthropometry and functional tests (original) (raw)
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American Journal of Human Biology, 2000
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. Am.
South African Journal of Sports Medicine, 2020
Background: Information about the relationships between physical fitness, body composition and nutrition has increased in recent years; however, little is known about physical fitness and the coexistence of under-/overnutrition among children living in disadvantaged areas. Objectives: To determine the physical fitness status and its association with body composition, growth and selected socio- demographics in primary schoolchildren from disadvantaged communities in the Nelson Mandela Bay region. Methods: Nine hundred and sixty-five children (49% girls, M=9.5 years) participated in this cross-sectional study. Height and weight were measured to establish body mass index, and height-for-age z-scores. Physical fitness was assessed using tests from the Eurofit Physical Fitness test battery (flexibility, upper/lower body muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness). Between- group differences and cross-sectional associations were examined with univariate (Chi2-tests, analyses of varia...
South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Background: The objective was to compare the body composition of black stunted, and non-stunted, children, from two rural communities in South Africa, and investigate whether increased total and central adiposity is found in stunted children. The design was a cross-sectional study. The setting was two study populations of children in rural South Africa. The subjects were 351 children aged 10-15 years old [Transition and Health during Urbanisation of South Africans (THUSA BANA) study], and 1 760 children aged 6-13 years old [Ellisras Longitudinal Growth and Health Study (ELS)]. Method: The body mass index (BMI), BMI for age z-score, sum of triceps and subscapular skin folds (SSF), waist circumference (WC), waist:height ratio (WHtR) of stunted, and non-stunted, children, were compared. Results: Almost 10% (n = 203) of children were stunted, and 34% had a BMI for age z-score below -2. After adjustment for age, non-stunted children had significantly higher values for BMI and WC, in both...
American Journal of Human Biology, 1990
Among 1,165 subjects aged 6-18 years who were examined once cross-sectionally, a significant variation in body height and weight according to the month ofbirth of the subjects was found. All subjects belonged to the so-called Cape Coloured community, were born locally, and their parents belonged to the most affluent sector of the community. Individuals born in February to July were shorter and weighed less (by 13 to 17% of the standard deviation) than those born in August to January. These results are similar to those obtained for Canadian children, who were-measured on their birthdays. Since our individuals were measured only once, at the same time of the year, observed differences cannot be ascribed to seasonal fluctuations of growth rates prior to measurement but must constitute a persistent effect of seasonal fluctuation in earlier growth. Immediate environmental conditions (food, temperature, rainfall, and insolation) in the Southern Hemisphere fluctuate seasonally 6 months out of phase from those in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus the similarity of our findings to those from the Northern Hemisphere suggests a factor common for the entire earth, possibly related to the ellipsoid shape of the orbit of the planet.
American Journal of Human Biology, 1998
The Birth To Ten (BTT) birth cohort study was designed to investigate the health and growth of children living in the Soweto-Johannesburg Metropole, South Africa. During 1990-1991, 4034 singleton births, from a total birth population of 5449 that occurred between 23 April and 8 June, 1990, were enrolled into the study. Anthropometric, socioeconomic, health, nutritional, and demographic data were collected at birth and at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 60 months. Socioeconomic data relating to household commodities, maternal education, and paternal occupation were combined to create socioeconomic status (SES) groups for comparative purposes. Mean birth weights were less than American norms and demonstrated significant differences between the sexes. The percentage of low birth weight children of normal gestational age (7.1%) was similar to that of developed countries. Growth in weight exceeded that of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reference during the first 6 months and then fell to −0.43 Z-scores by 4 years. Height growth was consistently less than the NCHS reference and the prevalence of stunting and wasting increased to 22.4% and 6.8%, respectively, by 2 years. Catch-up occurred between 4 and 5 years resulting in a reduction in the prevalence of stunting and wasting to 5.4% and 0.8%, respectively, at 5 years. SES differences were apparent throughout the time period but only reached significance in height and weight after 4 years of age.
American Journal of Human Biology, 2007
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the development, tracking and longitudinal relationships of nutritional status, body composition and educational achievements in rural South African children in 459 boys and 354 girls who participate in the Ellisras Longitudinal Study. Nutritional status, body composition and educational achievements were measured in 2001 and 2002. The results showed that: 1) Height for age (HAZ) decreased signifi cantly over the oneyear period whereas Weight for Age (WAZ), Body mass index (BMI) and Sum of skinfolds (SOS) did not change, and the Mathematics and English achievements increased over the one-year period. 2) High tracking coeffi cients were found for HAZ, WAZ, BMI, while SOS showed low to moderate tracking and Mathematics and English showed no tracking. 3) Signifi cant relationships between changes in nutritional status and changes in educational achievements were found for boys only.
The prevalence of malnutrition and growth percentiles for urban South African children
BMC Public Health, 2019
BackgroundLow- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are experiencing a double-burden of malnutrition characterised by high prevalence of both under- and over-nutrition. We set out using data from the mixed-longitudinal Birth-to-Twenty Plus (Bt20+) birth cohort, to evaluate the patterns of malnutrition and growth in a large South African (SA) city by; (i) assessing the prevalence of undernutrition from birth to 5 years of age and overweight and obesity from ages 2 to 21 years in black and white, male and female children, and (ii) determining percentiles for height, weight, BMI, waist and hip circumferences and comparing the centiles to American and Dutch references.MethodsHeight, weight, waist and hip circumferences were measured on urban black and white SA children from the Bt20+. A total of 3273 children born between April and June 1990 in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan area were included in the cohort. Z-scores were derived using the WHO 2006 child growth standards (0–5 years), for defining stunting, underweight and wasting. The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) references were used to define overweight and obesity. Percentiles were developed using the lambda mu sigma (LMS) method and compared to American and Dutch references.ResultsBlack children were consistently shorter and black males lighter than white children and American references. The prevalence of stunting peaked at 2 years and was significantly higher in males than females and in black than white children. Black females had a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity than black males from 10 to 17 years. The percentiles for black females for weight and BMI were similar to those of South African white and American references but both black and white South African females had lower waist circumferences than American references.ConclusionThe growth percentiles show that young South African urban black females are experiencing general but not central obesity due to a secular change which is faster in weight than height. High levels of undernutrition persist alongside high levels of over-nutrition with adolescence being a critical period for the upsurge in obesity in females. Early intervention is needed to combat the rise in obesity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-6794-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.