ABSTRACT
Weight, stature, arm circumference, and the triceps skinfold were measured in 1,410 school children, 6 through 14 years of age, from two urban colonies in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez (n = 479), and from two rural Ladino (n = 467) and two rural Zapotec (n = 464) communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Children from rural Ladino communities and urban colonies are significantly taller, heavier, and more muscular than children in rural Zapotec communities. The differences between rural Ladino and urban colonia children favor the former, particularly for weight and stature. These observations thus suggest 1) that children in the rural, indigenous communities in the Valley of Oaxaca are relatively undernourished compared to children in Ladinoized and urban communities, and 2) that rural-to-urban migration does not necessarily result in improved growth status.
Subject(s)
Growth , Indians, North American , Rural Population , Urban Population , Adolescent , Age Factors , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena , Female , Humans , Male , Mexico , Sex Factors , Skinfold Thickness , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
Weight, stature, arm circumference, and the triceps skinfold were measured in 1,410 school children, 6 through 14 years of age, from two urban colonias in the city of Oaxaca de Juarez (n = 479), and from two rural Ladino (n = 467) and two rural Zapotec (n = 464) communities in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Children from rural Ladino communities and urban colonias are significantly taller, heavier, and more muscular than children in rural Zapotec communities. The differences between rural Ladino and urban colonia children favor the former, particularly for weight and stature. These observations thus suggest 1) that children in the rural, indigenous communities in the Valley of Oaxaca are relatively undernourished compared to children in Ladinoized and urban communities, and 2) that rural-to-urban migration does not necessarily result in improved growth status.
Subject(s)
Growth , Adolescent , Anthropometry , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Mexico , Nutrition Disorders/physiopathology , Rural Population , Skinfold Thickness , Urban PopulationSubject(s)
Altitude , Birth Weight , Body Height , Infant, Newborn , Bolivia , Europe/ethnology , Female , Gestational Age , Humans , Indians, South American , Male , Sex Factors , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
Status quo menarcheal information was collected for a mixed urban colonia and rural sample of 315 girls in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. Comparative status quo data for girls from four major urban centres in Mexico, and for a rural sample were also analysed. Median age at menarche (estimated by probit analysis) for Oaxaca girls was 14.27 +/- 0.20 years, about 0.5 year later than that for the rural sample from Tampico-Altamira, Tamaulipas (13.79 +/- 0.20 years), and approximately 1.5 years later than that for girls from the four urban centres in Mexico (12.55 +/- 0.10, 12.61 +/- 0.08, 12.75 +/- 0.10, 12.76 +/- 0.07 years). The timing of menarche in Oaxaca girls is similar to that for rural Mayans in Guatemala. Ages at menarche for urban Mexican girls are somewhat lower than those for girls of North-west European ancestry and of North American girls of European ancestry.
Subject(s)
Menarche , Adolescent , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Female , Humans , Mexico , Rural Population , Urban PopulationSubject(s)
Body Height , Body Weight , Metacarpus/anatomy & histology , Adolescent , Child , Female , Humans , Male , MexicoABSTRACT
Skeletal maturity of the hand and wrist (Tanner-Whitehouse II system) was assessed in a sample of 394 school children 5 to 18 years of age, in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. The socio-economic background of the sample was relatively poor and the group appeared to have a poor nutritional history (via height and weight measurements). At most ages, the mean skeletal ages of Oaxaca school children are below the British means, and about 60 per cent of the children have skeletal ages below their chronological ages.
