ABSTRACT
With the purpose to evaluate the nutritional status of children hospitalized in the Nuevo Hospital Civil de Guadalajara, they were included 278 subjects that entered in the infant, preschool, schoolchildren and infectious disease clinical ward of the Division of Pediatrics. There were chosen two subjects every day during one year. It was obtained information about family and sociodemographic background. In addition, there were undertaken anthropometric measurements; weight/age, weight/height and height/age indices were also calculated. It was obtained the parameters of median, percentiles and Z-score. Undernutrition was determined by the Gómez and Waterlow classifications. Is was also compared the reference pattern of Ramos-Galván and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Blood was drawn for total protein and hemoglobin. Mean of height/age was 95.74% (NCHS), weight/age 84.04% and weight/height 89.7%. It was not difference on weight/age between Ramos-Galván and NCHS. Weight/height and height/age had little difference. The median system identified more cases with deficit than Z-score, which seems to be more specific and conservative. There is a high prevalence of acute and chronic malnutrition identified with the median system, and maybe reflects the poor quality of life and major morbidity in this population.
