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F Trowbridge

Publications and source records attributed to F Trowbridge.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Issues in the assessment of nutritional status using anthropometry.

Four issues in the use and interpretation of anthropometry are discussed at the level of the population and of the individual. The first issue is the index or indices of choice: weight-for-height versus height-for-age versus weight-for-age. The selection of an index or indices depends upon many factors, and no one index is completely adequate in all situations. Proposed criteria are provided to assess the severity of low anthropometry within populations. The second issue is the scale of the index: z-scores (or standard deviations) versus percentiles versus percent-of-median. z-Scores have several properties that make them superior to the other two scales. A third issue deals with limitations in the current growth reference; one of these is the disjunction between the growth curves at 2 years of age, resulting from the use of two different populations in the reference. It is important that this disjunction be recognized by researchers so that the anthropometric findings are interpreted correctly for this age range. Lastly, some issues to do with the collection of single versus multiple anthropometric measurements on children are discussed.

Anthropometry↗
PubMed1993

Trends and patterns in height and weight status of low-income U.S. children.

To better define the trends and patterns of growth for low-income children, we studied the anthropometry data collected by the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES II) and the CDC Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PNSS). Based on NHANES II, we found that low-income children appear to have a greater prevalence of shortness (low height-for-age), but do not have a greater prevalence of overweight (high weight-for-height) when compared with children from higher income families. Based on 12 states that were monitored continuously by the PNSS from 1980 to 1989, low-income children under 5 years of age appear to have a stable trend of height and weight status, with the exception of Asian children, most of whom were from Southeast Asian refugee background, showed a dramatic improvement in height status. However, based on PNSS data for the years 1977 to 1990 from Louisiana and Michigan, school-aged children and adolescents appear to have become slightly taller as well as having significant increases in body weight in relation to height. An additional investigation is needed to verify this trend of increasing excess weight among older, low-income children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Improving growth status of Asian refugee children in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the trend and pattern of the nutrition status of Southeast Asian refugee children and other low-income children in the United States. DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of the growth data from the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga, from 1980 through 1989. SUBJECTS: Children under 5 years of age from low-income families enrolled in public health clinics in 12 selected states. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Asian refugee children experienced a progressive and significant decline in the prevalence of low birth weight, low height-for-age, and low weight-for-age, while these nutritional indexes remained stable for low-income white, black, and Hispanic children. By 1989, the growth status of Asian children was near that of other ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: The marked improvement of growth status among Asian refugee children over a short period suggests that the poor growth status often observed among recently immigrated Asian children is primarily related to nutritional and health factors, rather than genetic factors. In assessing the growth of Asian or immigrant children, it would be helpful to take their family and early childhood background into account.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1987

Validity of clinic-based nutritional surveillance for prevalence estimation of undernutrition.

Few studies have been performed to assess the validity of clinic-based nutritional surveillance systems. We compared estimates of the prevalence of underweight (low weight-for-age) obtained from the clinic-based Swaziland surveillance system with estimates obtained from the 1983 National Nutrition Status Survey of Rural Swaziland. The age-adjusted prevalence of underweight among first-time clinic attenders (10.0%) was very similar to that estimated by the national survey (9.4%). However, the prevalence of underweight among children attending two or more times in a year was less than half that of first attenders (4.4%). The regional differences in the prevalence of underweight found in the national survey were not detected by the surveillance system. Surveillance data are useful in describing the nutritional status of children from clinics within the surveillance system. However, surveillance data, particularly from re-attenders, will not necessarily provide a valid estimate of nutritional status within the general population or of differences between regions.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1978

Functional classification of undernourished populations in the Republic of El Salvador. Methodological development.

Typical government nutrition programmes usually lack precise information on the size of groups that could benefit from interventions, on the different types of potential beneficiaries and their location, and on socio-economic and cultural characteristics through which they could readily be identified. In the functional classification approach to the definition of nutritional problems, detailed information on human behaviour and social constraints is collected at family and community levels. The data are then interpreted in general terms in order to understand how these factors contribute to inadequate levels of nutrition within larger groups. This new approach should enable more effective measures for reducing the numbers of those living under conditions of deprivation to be presented to planners and decision makers.

El Salvador↗