Nutritional status of Jamaican children in an economic depression

ABSTRACT

In Jamaica, between 1979 and 1984 the cost of basic food items increased steeply. It had previously been suggested that many children would rapidly become malnourished in the event of an economic depression. We therefore investigated whether the nutritional status of children in two poor urban neighbourhoods had deteriorated during this period. In both 1979 and 1984, a house to house survey was carried out in the same area using the same methods and sample selection. The sample comprised children between 6 and 48 months, and it included 211 children in 1979 and 227 in 1984. There was no consistent change in the children's mean percentage expected weight-for-age or weight-for-height, nor in the prevalence of moderate or severe malnutrition. There was however an increase in breast feeding. The results suggest that in some populations an increase in malnutrition may be a later manifestation of an economic depression rather than an early one (AU)