Family size and malnutrition in Santo Domingo.

A case-control study of 82 urban Dominican women with a malnourished child and 82 women with a well-nourished child of the same age, sex, and neighborhood of residence revealed that the women of the control group had significantly lower parity and also had fewer living children. More women in the case group had used contraception at one time. Nevertheless, the prevalence of current contraceptive use was identical in the two groups. More women in the control group had undergone one or more spontaneous or induced abortions. Although the women in both groups were selected from the same neighborhoods, there is evidence to suggest that the the women in the control group may have had higher family incomes. The higher incomes could well account, at least in part, for the difference in parity between the two groups as well as for the difference in nutritional status in the preschool children of the mothers of these groups.