Malnutrition, infection and child growth in Jamaica

ABSTRACT

A semi-longitudinal study of factors influencing child growth in a rural community in Jamaica provided an opportunity to explore the relationships between diarrhoea, respiratory infections and body weight. Respiratory infections and diarrhoea both reached peak incidences between the ages of 6 and 24 months when children are at highest risk of malnutrition. Respiratory infections had no demonstrable influence on growth. Diarrhoea was more common in boys than in girls and more common in underweight children. It had no influence on long-term weight increases, though it did have the expected influence on short-term increments. The findings suggested that much of the diarrhoea seen in this community of children may have been secondary to undernutrition rather than a cause of it. (AU)