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Document Type

Article

Abstract

Growth status data for a new sample of semi-urban, non-agrarian Indian children living in Guatemala are presented. These children are from the Cakchiquel language group. The sample includes 753 children between the ages of 5 and 14 years of age. All were attending the public primary school in their village. The variables measured include height, weight, arm circumference, and triceps and subscapular skinfold. Arm muscle area and arm fat area were also estimated. The growth status of this sample is compared to that of three other groups: low SES non-Indian children living in Guatemala City, rural-agrarian Cakchiquel children from Guatemala, and rural-agrarian Zapotec Indian children from the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Cakchiquel and Zapotec children are shorter and lighter than the urban non-Indian children, but the differences are not statistically significant. Body composition measures do significantly differ between samples. The largest differences are for arm fat area; the low SES urban children have more arm fat than each of the Indian samples. Other comparisions find that subscapular fat is less labile to sample differences than arm fat, and that there is no evidence for secular changes in the growth status of Cakchiquel Indian children living in Guatemala during the past two decades.

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