Diarrhea and growth retardation

We have used a 38‐year data set from an Aboriginal community in Queensland, Australia to test whether diarrheal disease (D&V) leads to growth retardation. During this period the community has passed from the high‐birth‐rate/high‐death‐rate situation of developing countries to the “western” pattern. In children aged from birth to five years episodes of D&V were not associated with significant decrease in weight growth either in the “developing” or the “developed” period. D&V explained less than 1% of the variability in weight gain. The 1982–83 cohort showed that D&V accounted for only 4% of the variation in height and 1% of the variation in weight at 5 years. Frequent D&V and delayed growth are more likely to be due to common preceding factors rather than D&V causing delayed growth.