THE PELATIONSHIP OF ANTHROPOMETIRC MEASURES OF HISPANIC CHILDREN UP TO AGE 5, ECONOMIC STATUS AND PARENTAL STATURE

Abstract

Using data from the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1982-1984 of the Nutritional Centre for health statistics (NCHS), the heights, weights and arm circumferences of 217 Mexican – American children ranging from six to sixty months were examined to assess the influence of birth weight, parental stature, and economic status on the growth patterns of Mexican-American children living with both parents. Heights, weights, and arm circumferences were converted to standardized values of height-for-age, weight-for age, and arm circumference-for-age using norms developed for Anglo-American children. Correlation and contingency table and analysis were performed to test hypotheses concerning factors found associated with the stature of children in earlier studies. While relationships among childhood stature and birth weight, parental stature, and economic status were in the expected direction, few were statistically significant due to the small number of cases in the analyses. Definitive conclusions concerning these relationships require a much larger sample of families.