Anthropometric evaluation of nutritional status, and fragmentary aspects of contextualized african reality: literature review

Abstract

In all developing countries, particularly in Africa, prevalence rates of undernutrition are high, notwithstanding the lower values in adolescents when compared to children. It is believed that precarious socio-economic conditions, environmental pressure, hygienic and sanitary circumstances as well as other factors induce unique nutritional constraints. This summary paper aims at the presentation of the state of the art of research in Sub-Saharan African countries concerning the evaluation of the nutritional status with different population strata that varies in age, ethnic grouping, geographical area, and socio-economic status, emphasizing the prevalence of nutritional defi cits. A research was made in PubMed database as well as in other on-line journals, and the same occurred for book chapters considering the following criteria of inclusion for references: descriptive and comparative research, studies concerning nutritional status and its relation with infectious diseases, and studies on nutritional habits and socio-economic status. In general, reviewed studies showed the high prevalence of stunting and wasting expressing differences between villages and towns; this trend is a function of age, sex and socio-economic status. On the other hand, results showed that socio-economic status, level of maternal scholarship and children’s biological characteristics (age and sex) are major determinants of nutritional status.