Association of anthropometric indices of nutritional status with growth in height among Limboo children of Sikkim, India.

Influence of nutrition in human growth failure, especially stunting, is a well-accepted idea. The present study assesses the influence of nutrition and non-nutritional factors on height growth in a short stature population. The present study was conducted among the children and adolescents of Sikkim, India. The sample size was 538 (boys and girls) of age 2-18 years. The anthropometric indices mid upper arm circumference-for-age Z-scores (MUACZ) and BMI-for-age Z-scores (BAZ) were utilised as proxy of nutritional status and growth was assessed using height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ). Associations were assessed using correlation, St. Nicolas house analysis (SNHA), principal component analysis (PCA) and regression. Nutritional status of the participating children and adolescents as assessed by MUACZ and BAZ were largely normal. Despite variation in HAZ from -4 to +2 there was no influence of the nutritional indices on height. Further, there was clear lack of association between HAZ and socio-economic variables in the present study. The findings of the present study suggest nutrition is not the primary regulator of human growth. The possible influence of community effects on height is discussed.