Nutritional status of the Andean population of Puna and Quebrada of Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina

Abstract

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of the Andean population of Puna and Quebrada of Humahuaca, Jujuy, using anthropometric measurements. Design and subjects: A cross-sectional nutritional survey was carried out in a representative sample (n 5 1236) of individuals from these regions. Children aged 2-9 years, adolescents (10-17 years) and adults ($18 years; pregnant and lactating women excluded) were considered. Height-for-age, weight-for-height and body mass index (BMI) were calculated in children and adolescents and compared with World Health Organization/National Center for Health Statistics/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference standards using Z-scores or percentiles, in order to assess the prevalence of stunting, wasting/thinness and excess weight. In adults, BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip (WHR) ratio were used to identify obesity and central adiposity.Results: Stunting (height-for-age Z-score ,-2 standard deviations) and obesity (BMI $ 95th percentile) were found to be major nutritional problems in children and adolescents. Stunting was prevalent in 10.7% of children and 12.4% of adolescents; 8.2% of children and 3.5% of adolescents were obese. Adults were short (mean: 155.8 cm) and values of overweight (32.3%), obesity (18.3%) and central adiposity (mean WC: 86.5 cm) were high. Older adults and those with higher economic development showed higher prevalence of obesity and central adiposity.Conclusions: The present population may be at the early stages of nutritional transition as symptoms of undernutrition and overnutrition coexist at the population level. These results suggest that rates of growth retardation may be decreasing owing to improved nutritional conditions; however, this could be accompanied by a sharp increase in the prevalence of other diet-related chronic diseases.

Growth, nutritional status, and signs of rickets in 0–5-year-old children in a Kashin–Beck disease endemic area of Central Tibet

“…1 Weight-for-age and height-for-age P50 of Tibetan children and WHO growth curves [17] and −1.34 (1.52), respectively. Stunting was present in nearly half of the children (Table 1) and severe stunting in 26% of them.…”

“…This is in agreement with previous observations from Tibet [4,8,9] and from comparable environments in the Himalaya [5], as well as in other parts of the world. Stunting is observed, for instance, in 10.7% of children living at high altitude, both in rural and urban environments, in the Andes [17]. This does not imply, however, that altitude is the cause of growth retardation.…”

Maternal short stature does not predict their children's fatness indicators in a nutritional dual‐burden sample of urban Mexican Maya

“…Within this context, a great percentage of individuals who experienced chronically poor nutrition in their early lives, and are thus stunted, seem to be more predisposed to obesity later in life (Florencio et al, 2003(Florencio et al, , 2007Martins et al, 2004;Grillo et al, 2005;Romaguera et al, 2008;Said-Mohamed et al, 2009;Ferreira et al, 2009;Sichieri et al, 2010;Alves et al, 2011). Individuals with chronic under-nutrition (stunting) in early life seem to have reduced energetic demands through metabolic (Soares-Wynter and Walker, 1996;Frisancho, 2003;Grillo et al, 2005;Said-Mohamed et al, 2009 and behavioral shifts (Spurr and Reina, 1988;Hoffman et al, 2000;Wilson et al, 2012).…”

Growth patterns among indigenous Qom children of the Argentine Gran Chaco

“…In particular, WAZ and BMIZ comparisons showed that ecological differences between peri-urban and rural groups resulted in a gradient where the former showed some of the telltale signs of the transition to a Westernized life style. Unlike non-Native Argentines, the Qom show a positive association between socioeconomic status and BMI (Valeggia et al, 2010), which has been observed in other Argentinean indigenous groups (Orden and Oyhenart, 2006;Romaguera et al, 2008) for whom heavy individuals are regarded as "healthy" (Valeggia et al, 2010). Among non-Native Argentine, increased levels of urbanization likely accompanied by dietary changes and low activity levels lead to significantly higher frequencies of obese and overweight individuals (Dahinten et al, 2011;Hirschler et al, 2008;Kovalskys et al, 2011;Ramirez-Zea et al, 2014).…”

“…Among non-Native Argentine, increased levels of urbanization likely accompanied by dietary changes and low activity levels lead to significantly higher frequencies of obese and overweight individuals (Dahinten et al, 2011;Hirschler et al, 2008;Kovalskys et al, 2011;Ramirez-Zea et al, 2014). Unlike non-Native Argentines, the Qom show a positive association between socioeconomic status and BMI (Valeggia et al, 2010), which has been observed in other Argentinean indigenous groups (Orden and Oyhenart, 2006;Romaguera et al, 2008) for whom heavy individuals are regarded as "healthy" (Valeggia et al, 2010). Moreover, a previous study has shown that Westernized Qom adults show a prevalence of obesity that is above 45% (Lagranja et al, 2015).…”