© 1985 Oxford University Press
research-article |
Kuwait Nutritional Survey: Comparison of the Nutritional Status of Kuwaiti Children Aged 69 Years with the NCHS/CDC Reference Population
Department of Community Medicine, Kuwait University Medical School PO Box 24923, Safat, Kuwait
A national cross-sectional survey of the heights and weights of Kuwaiti primary school children aged 69 years was conducted on a stratified multistage sample of 5132 subjects from two socio-economic districts. The collected data were used to compare the nutritional status of Kuwaiti children with their American counterparts using the NCHS/CDC reference population. The basic indices used for comparison were height for age and weight for height, each considered in terms of centiles and SD scores and cross-classifed using SD scores. The results indicated that although Kuwaiti children in the studied age groups are shorter than American children severe short stature is relatively infrequent as 48.3% fell below the 30th centile of the reference population. Conversely, Kuwaiti children are relatively heavier than American children as 61.1% fell above the 50th centile of the reference population.
Received 1 October 1984