IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.71.1.31_2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food, sanitation, and the socioeconomic determinants of child growth in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Koopman, J.S.
  • Fajardo, L.
  • Bertrand, W.

Abstract

To describe the causes of growth failure in a developing country, the authors studied family food availability, anthropometric measurements of preschool children, and family and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions in a stratified random sample of Cali, Colombia families. The influences on preschool child growth of food availability, neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, and family socioeconomic conditions were separated statistically. Neither food avilability nor other family factors were related directly to growth, but neighborhood factors did have a strong relationship to growth. Children decreased progressively from 97.5% of expected weight in the top one-sixth of neighborhoods the authors studied to 89% in the bottom one-sixth. Food availability, although not related to growth, was strongly related to family factors. The top one-sixth of families had 115% of FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) protein allowances, while the bottom one-sixth had only 75%. These findings are inconsistent with food availability or family factors being the principal causes of growth retardation. They are consistent with neighborhood determined factors, possibly enteric infections, being the principal cause of growth retardation in preschool children in Cali.

Suggested Citation

  • Koopman, J.S. & Fajardo, L. & Bertrand, W., 1981. "Food, sanitation, and the socioeconomic determinants of child growth in Colombia," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 71(1), pages 31-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.71.1.31_2
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.71.1.31
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.71.1.31
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.71.1.31?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.71.1.31_2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.