© 1981 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Malnutrition and Anaemia in Gilbertese Pre-school Children: A Case-finding and Epidemiological Survey
Ministry of Health Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, South Pacific
Eight hundred and thirty pre-school children from 6 villages in the Gilbert Islands were weighed and haemoglobin measurements made. Dietary histories were obtained on 245 and stool examinations for hookworm ova were made on 267 children. Some possible determinants of malnutrition and anaemia were examined. Overall prevalence rates of 15.1% for weight below 80% of the Harvard Standard weight for age, and of 18.6% for haemoglobin levels of less than 10 g per 100 ml were observed. Large variations in prevalence were seen; high rates apparently being related to the unfavourable and overcrowded conditions in parts of the central urbanized island of Tarawa. Hookworm infection was found to be common in the northern villages where the climate is wetter (prevalence rate 42.3%). Diet of children in the northern rural islands was found to be of higher protein and iron content than in the urbanized village studied.