Shariff Z M, Bond J, Johson N
Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor.
Malays J Nutr. 2000 Mar;6(1):17-32. Epub 2000 Mar 15.
Growth status was examined in relation to gender and age factors in urban primary school children (6-10 years old) from low income households in Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan. The sample consisted of 4212 boys (53%) and 3793 girls (47%). Data on weight and height data were obtained from two sources - investigator's and teachers' measurements of the school children. This study defined mildly and significantly underweight, stunted or wasted as z-score below minus one and below minus two of the NCHS/CDC reference median, respectively. Approximately 52% (n = 4149), 50% (n = 3893) and 30% (n = 2568) of the school children were underweight, stunted and wasted, respectively. However, the majority of these undernourished children were in the mild category. Prevalence of overweight (> 2 SD of NCHS/WHO reference median) was found in 5.8% of the sample. For both, prevalence of undernutrition and overnutrition, more boys than girls were found to be underweight stunted wasted and overweight. Compared to girls, boys had lower mean z-scores for the variables height-for-age (p<0.05) and weight-for-height (p<0.01). Older children had significantly lower mean z-scores for height-for-age (p<0.001) but higher mean z-scores for weight-for-height (P<0.001) than younger children. This finding indicates that with increasing age, stunting is associated with improved weight-for-height or that the children's weights have been adapted to their short statures. In conclusion, results demonstrate a high prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting and an increasing prevalence of overweight among these low-income school children. Efforts recommended to address health and nutrition problems among school children should include health and nutrition monitoring (e.g. growth monitoring using the existing growth data collected by schools) and interventions.
对吉隆坡联邦直辖区低收入家庭的城市小学生（6至10岁）的生长状况与性别和年龄因素的关系进行了调查。样本包括4212名男孩（53%）和3793名女孩（47%）。体重和身高数据来自两个来源——研究人员和教师对在校儿童的测量。本研究将轻度和显著体重不足、发育迟缓或消瘦分别定义为低于NCHS/CDC参考中位数的z分数低于-1和低于-2。分别约有52%（n = 4149）、50%（n = 3893）和30%（n = 2568）的在校儿童体重不足、发育迟缓或消瘦。然而，这些营养不良儿童大多属于轻度类别。在5.8%的样本中发现超重患病率（>NCHS/WHO参考中位数的2个标准差）。在营养不良和营养过剩方面，体重不足、发育迟缓、消瘦和超重的男孩均多于女孩。与女孩相比，男孩的年龄别身高（p<0.05）和身高别体重（p<0.01）的平均z分数较低。年龄较大的儿童年龄别身高的平均z分数显著较低（p<0.001），但身高别体重的平均z分数高于年龄较小的儿童（P<0.001）。这一发现表明，随着年龄的增长，发育迟缓与身高别体重的改善有关，或者儿童的体重已适应其矮小身材。总之，结果表明这些低收入学童中体重不足、发育迟缓和消瘦的患病率很高，超重患病率也在增加。建议为解决学童健康和营养问题而采取的措施应包括健康和营养监测（例如使用学校收集的现有生长数据进行生长监测）和干预措施。
