[Social stratification and nutritional anthropometry in children under 15 years old La Escalera, Lara State,...

Malnutrition is a public health problem for underdeveloped countries. From the 852 million of undernourished estimated by FAO between 2000 and 2002, 815 million belonged to underdeveloped countries, 28 million to countries in transition and 9 million to developed countries. Malnutrition in Venezuela had a 6% raise between 2000 and 2002, when it went from 11% to 17%. This work was done with children under 15 years old from La Escalera, using classic indicators and their combination, relating them with socioeconomic conditions, through the NBI and Graffar Méndez Castellano methods, as to consider the population nutritional profile. The higher prevalence corresponded to normal nutritional values, which oscillated between 55,7% and 80,7% in the 7-14 years old group and the 2-6 years old group, respectively. Malnutrition was found in the under 2 years old group and 7-14 years old group, with values ranging between 12,5 and 41,0% respectively. The least prevalence was found for excess malnutrition. 100% of the families in this study are poor, according to NBI; although the Graffar Mendez Castellano method established that poverty was about 60%, while 40% belonged to a medium-low status. Relating nutritional diagnosis with social stratification and the mother's educational level, three patterns were observed: III, IV and V, prevailing normal diagnosis, followed by malnutrition by deficit and malnutrition by excess, respectively. The predominating mother's educational level corresponded to incomplete high school, followed by analphabetism and the least prevalent has complete basic elementary education. It should be noted that the nutrition deficit was inversely related to the socioeconomic stratification and the mother's educational level.