Nutritional status and development of working capacity of preschool Senegalese children

Anthropometric measurements and a sub-maximal effort step-test were recorded three times in one year for a sample of 88 Senegalese children aged between 3 and 6. These children all came from a rural area where nutritional situation is poor. The values significantly improved from one visit to the next, but, in comparison to European or North American standards, somatic growth is retarded, muscular mass is weaker, and cardio-respiratory adaptation to effort is less.

Taking as a malnutrition threshold a height-for-age and a height-for-weight less than -1 standard deviation from the N.C.H.S.#shW.H.0 reference, one concludes that wasted and small for age children register poorer aerobic performance than well nourished children.

These observations stress the importance of nutritional conditions in the somatic and functional development of African children. Study of these relationships is essential to a better understanding of the gravity and consequences of chronic undernutrition