Abstract
A high proportion of the school population suffers from a deficit in stature, generally as a consequence of early nutritional, deficit though genetic factors and other environmental influences such as a history of repeated infections should also be considered as possible causes. A study was planned with the objetive of providing background to the etiology of this growth delay in children from 7 to 10 years old who belong to low socioeconomic level, and the consequent impact on their cognitive funcitoning. Four study groups were selected:eutrophic (T/E ≥ 98%;P/T ≥ 95%) and stunted (T/E ≤ 95%; P/T ≥ 95%) school age children with and without malnutrition and/or history of repeated infections. The children were given health, genetic and neurologic examinations, and a complete psychological battery was applied (IQ, language, attention, reading skills, and maths). Both parents stature was registered and the quality of home stimulation was evaluated. Preliminary results indicate that eutrophic children, with and without morbid history have a general cognitive performance similar (EUT/with X̄ 102±8;EUT/wo X̄103±7) to be stunted (ST/with X̄ 102±13;ST/wo X̄ 101± 11). However when testing specific skills like math, eutrophic children have a better performance than the stunted group (EUT/with X̄ 63±13;EUT/wh X̄ 64 ±10, ST/ with X̄ 59±13, ST/wo X̄ 59 ±10). This results seem to indicate that even if IQ is not affected as consequence of malnutrition or repeated infections, more specific funtions like maths are damaged. Project financed by FONDECYT.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Castillo, M., Cortes, F. & De Andraca, I. GROWTH DELAY IN SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN OF LOW SOCIOECONCMIC LEVEL: ITS IMPACT ON COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING.. Pediatr Res 33, 661 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199306000-00036
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199306000-00036