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Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Publica
Print version ISSN 1726-4634
Abstract
HUAMAN-ESPINO, Lucio and VALLADARES E, Carmen. Estado nutricional y características del consumo alimentario de la población Aguaruna. Amazonas, Perú 2004. Rev. perú. med. exp. salud publica [online]. 2006, vol.23, n.1, pp.12-21. ISSN 1726-4634.
Objectives: To identify nutritional status and alimentary patters in less than three-year-old children and fertile women in Aguaruna natives in Amazonas department, Peru, 2004. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study performed using a representative sample composed of 478 fertile women and 465 children, who were previously selected using a probabilistic two-staged sampling procedure. Anthropometric measurements and hemoglobin determinations were performed in both groups, and a food consumption survey was carried out in a sample comprising 290 households. Results: The prevalence of chronic malnutrition was 33,4%. A statistical association between district of residence and chronic malnutrition in children was found. The prevalence of anemia was 76,5%. 89% of fertile women had an ideal body mass index; however, average height in Aguaruna women was 148 cm. The prevalence of anemia in fertile women was 50,2%. A list comprising more than 100 local and foreign foods eaten by Aguaruna people as part of their usual diet was elaborated; however, only cassava and bananas are eaten daily; and rice, carachama (a river fish), worms, eggs and certain native vegetables (chonta and sachaculantro) are eaten weekly. Conclusions: This assessment indicates there are nutritional deficits in children; and iron deficiency anemia affects half of fertile women and two of every three children. This situation may be attributed to consumption of diet based mainly in cassava and bananas, with insufficient poor animal protein contents.
Keywords : Malnutrition; Anemia; Indigenous population; Food consumption; Risk group nutrition; Peru.