Anthropometric, 3-day food weighing, and 2-day time allocation surveys were used in the 1990-1991 dry and wet seasons to examine the recommended international child growth references for weight/height (W/H). The sample included forty 6- to 9-year-old girls and boys from a slash-and-burn horticultural community near Ranomafana National Park in the southeastern Malagasy rain forest. Positional behavior, location, and various productive and social activities were related to anthropometric status, caloric intake, and gender. Sitting activities increased while energetic manual chores and prone activity decreased when W/H was below -1 to -1.5 SD of the international NCHS reference. However, running play and some of the locations that children use decreased more when W/H approached -2.5 or -3 SD, or when caloric intake was below about one half of the international recommendation. The latter anthropometric and dietary levels did not necessarily occur in the same children, suggesting that anthropometric surveillance alone may not identify children at risk. Moral thresholds of socially tolerable behavior relative to growth status and common statistically based cutoffs for growth status vary, which prompts questions about the appropriate level at which to target health programs. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Copyright © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.