Nutritional correlates of child development in Southern Tunisia. I. Linear growth
Boutourline, E.; Tesi, G.; Kerr, G.R.; Stare, F.J.; Kallal, Z.; Turki, M.; Hemaidan, N.
Growth 36(4): 407-424
1972
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-4793 PMID: 4653618 Document Number: 46207
1. The height, sitting height, leg length and bodyweight were measured for all children aged 3 months to 5 years 9 months in villages around Chott el Djerid, a large salt lake in southern Tunisia which is dry for about half the year and is surrounded by desert. The local population is Arab, negro and Berber. Wheat products provide about 70% of the total energy intake and practically all the protein. Breast feeding continues until the infants are 2 years old. At 3 months old measurements were about the same as the mean of the reference standards (Nelson (Editor), Textbook of Pediatrics. USA, Philadelphia, Saunders (1969)) but by 1.5 years both height and bodyweight had fallen to the 3rd percentile of the reference. It is not yet possible to show whether genetic, nutritional or other environmental factors caused the pattern of development. Tables give 7 values from the 3rd to 97th centiles of length, crown-rump or sitting height, leg length and bodyweight for 23 ages from 3 months to 5 years 9 months, for girls and boys separately, also the height and boyweight per cent of standards, and their quotient, for 12 ages from 3 to 66 months. Graphs give length or height and bodyweight shown against standards.