Highland Guatemalan women are extremely short of stature, and no lactation duration effects on body composition are observed in a cross-sectional survey.

ABSTRACT

Early linear growth in Guatemala has historically been compromised, resulting in adults of short stature. We hypothesized that the rate of short stature among mothers in the Western Highlands would have tracked from their own childhood when younger than 5 years, and that maternal weight declines progressively from delivery through lactation. Maternal weight and height were collected in 542 lactating mothers of infant and toddlers, ranging in age from 15 to 48 years, with subsequent classification of mothers for short stature (relative to the 1977 World Health Organization/National Center for Health Statistics growth curves) and for underweight (body mass index [BMI], <18.5 kg/m²), overweight (BMI, 25-30 kg/m²), or obesity (BMI, ≥30 kg/m²). The mean stature for the sample of adult women was 149.3 ± 5.9 cm, with a median of 149.0 cm. Women classified of Mayan descent were significantly (P < .001) shorter (147.0 ± 5.1 cm) than others (150.5 ± 6.0 cm). In terms of height percentiles for the age-specific female reference, 410 (76%) of mothers were below the fifth percentile and only 8 (1.5%) reached the median. Respective partition for underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity was as follows 5%, 50%, 36%, and 9%. Variation in BMI with respect to the age of the offspring as the indicator of the duration of lactation was not significant, by analysis of variance or correlation analysis. Insofar as short stature is a risk factor for a series of adverse health consequences, including obesity and obstructed labor at childbirth, among others, it is time to direct public health attention toward resolving the causal factors for short stature in Guatemala.