Children who do not receive adequate nutrients are at risk for a number of health concerns. And now, a new study reveals that in the US, Hispanic children and girls have significantly higher rates of chronic malnutrition, leading researchers to call for specific analyses of child nutrition.
Investigators from the latest study published their results in the Pan American Journal of Public Health.
They looked at nutritional status in both Hispanic and non-Hispanic children by studying a representative sample of over 14,000 children from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which was conducted between 2003 and 2010.
All children were living in the US and were between the ages of 2- and 19-years-old.
Among Hispanic children, the researchers found chronic malnutrition was twice as high, compared with non-Hispanic white children.
"Stunting" - defined as low height for age, and which also signals chronic malnutrition - was much higher among Hispanic children than non-Hispanic white children, at 6.1% versus 2.6%.
Additionally, the researchers found that 38.2% of Hispanic children were either overweight or obese, compared with 29.8% of non-Hispanic white children.
Surprisingly, even in the healthy weight category of Hispanic children, 6.8% exhibited stunting, compared with 4.6% of overweight or obese Hispanic children.
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