Prevalence of undernutrition and iron deficiency in pre-school children from different socioeconomic regions in the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico

Lack of adequate food and in particular high quality protein, is one of the causes of malnutrition in children which could result in retarded growth. Iron deficiency is common in populations where protein sources are of vegetable origin; however in northern Mexico where the bean consumption is high, anemia is not a problem. The primary staples in the Mexican diet are corn tortillas and beans. The objective of this study was to evaluate the anthropometric condition of children 4-6 years old living in the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico and to determine the prevalence of anemia. Mean Z scores for children 4-6 years old living in poor conditions in the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico showed significant differences between socioeconomic groups (p<0.002) for height/age (H/A) and weight/age (W/A) (p<0.001) after adjusting for age and sex. Weight/height (W/H) was not different (p=0.30). By using the Waterlow classification system, 28.8% of the pre-school children of this study were stunted and only 0.9% were classified as wasted. There were no children that presented both stunting and wasting. Iron deficiency was very prevalent in both boys and girls, ranging from 56-79% depending on the indicator used. When classified by the combination of serum ferritin, % transferrin saturation and hemoglobin values, 23.7% of the children were classified as anemic, 11.9% in a state of iron deficiency and 13.6% with low iron reserves.