Nutritional status of indigenous children younger than five years of age in Mexico: Results of a National Probabilistic Survey
Objective. To compare the prevalence of undernutritionand anemia in indigenous and non-indigenous children <5years of age at the national level, by region and by urban andrural areas, and to evaluate the degree to which the socioeconomiccondition of the family predicts the differences.Material an...
| Autores: | , , , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2003 |
| País: | México |
| Recursos: | Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública |
| Repositório: | Redalyc-INSP |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:redalyc.org:10609803 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=10609803 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Salud Mexico anemia wasting stunting undernutrition |
| Resumo: | Objective. To compare the prevalence of undernutritionand anemia in indigenous and non-indigenous children <5years of age at the national level, by region and by urban andrural areas, and to evaluate the degree to which the socioeconomiccondition of the family predicts the differences.Material and Methods. A national probabilistic survey wasconducted in Mexico in 1999. Indigenous families were identifiedas those in which at least one woman 12-49 years ofage in the household spoke a native language. The prevalenceof undernutrition (stunting, wasting and underweight)and anemia was compared between indigenous and nonindigenouschildren. Probability ratios (PR) were used tocompare prevalences in indigenous and non-indigenous childrenadjusting for socioeconomic status (SES) of the familyand for other covariates. Results. The prevalences of stuntingand underweight were greater in indigenous than in nonindigenouschildren. At the national level and in urban areasthe prevalences were three times greater and in rural areas~2 times greater (p<0.05). No differences were found inthe prevalence of wasting (p>0.05). The prevalence of anemiain indigenous children was one third greater than innon-indigenous children at the national level (p<0.05) andwas between 30 and 60% greater in urban areas and in theregions studied (p<0.05) but was not statistically significant(p>0.05) in rural areas. These differences were reduced toabout half when adjusting for SES but remained significantly higher in indigenous children (p<0.05). Conclusions. Indigenouschildren have higher probabilities of stunting and underweightthan non-indigenous children. The differences arelarger in urban areas and in higher socioeconomic geographicregions and are explained mostly by socioeconomic factors.The overall difference in the probability of anemia is small,is higher only in urban relative to rural areas, and is explainedto a lesser degree by socioeconomic factors. Policy andprograms should be designed and implemented to reducethe dramatic differences in nutritional status between indigenousand non-indigenous children in Mexico. TheEnglish version of this paper is available too at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html |
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