[Anthropometric nutritional indices and food intake of a child population of South Ivory Coast (author's transl)].

The present study was carried out in order to determine new biochemical or immunological parameters which would be used to make an early diagnosis of protein-caloric malnutrition. For the first phase of the research, based on antropometrics (circumference of the arm, head, weight) and on the quantitative evaluation of daily nutritional food intake, three groups of children between the ages of 1 and 3 were selected according to the following criteria: -- Properly nourished children, -- Malnourished children without physical signs of malnutrition, -- Malnourished children with malnutrition signs. The description of these three groups using the forementioned indicators is reported. This work performed on 652 infants shows the following results: -- Whatever the age, mid-arm circumference and weight are significantly reduced in confirmed cases of malnutrition, but are not useful in detecting malnutrition at an early stage. -- Whatever the age, head circumference does not change with the nutritional status, but it is reduced when the malnutrition has set in. -- Whatever the age, the caloric ration (25% deficit) and the proteic ration (35% deficit) of a malnourished child without signs of malnutrition and those of a well nourished child are different. But those ration does not change with an increasing degree of malnutrition.