cit-title-group
Abstract
*Department of International Health, The Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, tCenÃ-rode Investigaciones en Salud Pública,Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública,62508 Cuernavaca, More/os, México, îGenentech, nc., South San Francisco, CA 94080 I ABSTRACT Length and weight data from a longitu dinal study of rural Guatemalan subjects birth to 7 y of age and height and weight data from a cross-sectional study of the same subjects when they were 11-24.9 y old are compared to reference data for the USA general population and for Mexican-Americans. At birth, the median length of Guatemalan children is at ~~the 16th percentile of the USA reference or ~ 2 shorter. By 6 mo of age, Guatemalan children are shorter, on av erage, than the 5th percentile of the reference curves and, in absolute terms, are ~5 below the median; by 3 y, the difference increases to ~ 10 . As adults, Guatemalans have about the same absolute level of deficit (-13 ) as they did at age 3 y. If the general USA population is used for comparison, Guatemalans can be said to grow as expected during adolescence, neither recuperating the growth retardation of early childhood nor falling further