Robert B. MacVean

Longitudinal Growth in Height, Weight, and Bone Age of Guatemalan Ladino and Indian Schoolchildren

Three longitudinal samples of Guatemalan schoolchildren are compared for amounts and rates of growth in height, weight, and bone age. The samples include children of two ethnic backgrounds: Ladinos, Spanish‐speaking people of, generally, Western cultural orientation; and Indians, people of Mayan cultural descent. The Indians are of very low socioeconomic status (SES) and attend a public school in a rural village. The Ladinos come from two SES groups living in Guatemala City, one of high SES attending a private school and the other of low SES attending a public school. Graphical and statistical analyses show that for all samples of boys and girls there are generally, significant differences between samples (high SES>low SES>Indian) for amounts of growth in height, weight, and bone age. Boys show significant differences in rates of growth between samples, with the high SES sample growing more rapidly than the two low SES samples. Girls show significant differences in the rate of growth in height, but not in the rate of growth in weight or bone age. For Both boys and girls, rates of growth in height and weight differ more between samples than does rate of Skeltal development. These results demonstrate that (1) SES‐related deficits in growth are cumulative during childhood and early adolescence, that (2) rates of growth for boys are, generally, more sensitive to the influence of SES than are the growth rates of girls, and that (3) childhood growth deficits of low SES children of low SES children are likely to carry over into adulthood.

Longitudinal growth of high socioeconomic status Guatemalan children analyzed by the Preece-Baines function: An international comparison

The Preece‐Baines model I function, adapted for use with a personal computer, is applied to the longitudinal growth records of Guatemalan children and adolescents of high socioeconomic status. The fit of the Preece‐Baines function to the Guatemalan data is compared with those of published analyses of the function fitted to the growth of British, Belgian, urban and rural Indian, Australian Aborigine, and African children. Guatemalan, British, and Belgian samples share generally favorable environments for human development and show few differences in the amount and velocity of growth, or in the timing of growth events. Urban Indians live under relatively good environmental conditions and are similar to Guatemalans in the timing of growth events, but grow more slowly and grow less than the Guatemalans, British, or Belgians. Rural Indian, Australian, and African samples live in environments that delay or retard growth, and these last‐named three samples grow more slowly, delay the onset of the adolescent growth spurt, and achieve smaller adult height than the Guatemalans. Parameters of the Preece‐Baines model are compared between all samples and show that there are several alternate paths in the rate of growth and the timing of adolescent growth events that may be taken from childhood to adulthood.

Biosocial effects of urban migration on the development of families and children in Guatemala.

The relationship between rural to urban migration and child growth and family structure is reported in sample of 302 children from families of low socioeconomic status, living in Guatemala City. The sample was divided into three groups: 1) children of parents born outside the city, 2) children of parents born in the city, and 3) children with one migrant and one city-born parent. Children of migrants to the city were the smallest and significantly shorter than children of migrant city-born parents. Migrant parents also had the largest families; family size correlated negatively with growth in height. Growth in weight followed a pattern similar to height, but no significant differences associated with migration status were found between groups.

Growth faltering and catch-up growth in relation to environmental change in children of a disadvantaged community from Guatemala City

The extent and persistence of stunting and growth status across a 10‐year period, and their relationship to changes in the home environment, have been analyzed using data from a 10‐year longitudinal study of three birth cohorts, seen initially at 3, 5, and 7 years and examined annually thereafter. The children came from an economically disadvantaged community located on the periphery of Guatemala City. The sample used in the analysis consisted of 271 subjects with complete growth and SES data over a 10‐year period. Stunting was high initially, with 43.5% of the sample displaying USNCHS height z‐scores < −2.0 at the first examination. Growth status at the first visit was a significant predictor of status after 10 years. The odds ratio for stunting in adolescence if stunted in early childhood was 18.39. Characteristics of the household at the first visit were a significant determinant of height, weight, estimated arm muscle, the triceps skinfold, and the BMI at the last visit, after adjusting for confounding variables. Changes in household status between the first and last visits were associated with greater growth increments in height and weight but not in the BMI, triceps skinfold, or estimated arm muscle circumference. These analyses have demonstrated that improved growth status during adolescence relative to status 10 years earlier (a form of catch‐up growth) was attributable to two factors: first, for the sample as a whole there was a general improvement in growth status with a mean change in height‐and weight‐for‐age z‐scores of 0.218 and 0.420, respectively; second, the change in household score from first to last visit was a significant determinant of growth increment over that period, but only in the case of height and weight. Thus, while the early environment is a powerful determinant of later growth status, some catch‐up growth can be identified both as a general systemic response as well as a response to changing environmental conditions.

Socioeconomic correlates of fertility, mortality, and child survival in mothers from a disadvantaged, urban Guatemalan community

Social and economic determinants of fertility, mortality, and child survival were studied in a sample of 519 mothers from EL Progreso, a disadvantaged community located on the outskirts of Guatemala city. Fertility (children ever‐born) and mortality (number of children who had died postnatally) data were obtained from interviews, along with data on the characteristics of the mothers, fathers, and the households. Contraceptive use was recorded on a subsample of 167 mothers of 5‐year old children. Following factor analyses, three variables were selected for analysis: Years of schooling of the father and the mother and the type of fuel used for cooking. Fathers education and type of fuel were significantly related to maternal fertility, while only the educational attainment of the mother was related to child mortality and survival. When contraceptive use was included in the ANCOVA in the subsample, it was a significant determinant of fertility, while fathers education became nonsignificant. In terms of mortality, contraceptive use was a significant determinant, while the significance of the mothers education fell to a borderline value (P = 0.084).