摘要：The main thrust of the study was to investigate the body composition of normal and malnourished children aged 3 to 11 years. A total of 2192 children aged 3 to 11 years, grouped into 2060 normal and 131 stunted, and 2062 normal and 129 wasted children using – 2SD of NHANES cut off point. Body composition was evaluated using anthropometric variables (weight, height, triceps, sub scapular, suprailiac, and biceps skinfolds). The anthropometric variables were measured according to the protocol of the international society for the Advancement of kinanthropometry. Children were categorized by the age groups as defined by Deitz (1994) for the development of obesity in children. Result revealed that percentage body fat was high for the stunted children in the infancy and adipose rebound period (16.8% and 15.3% of stunted children compared to 15.6 and 14.9% normal children respectively), which the normal children had high significant percentage body fat at the adolescence spurt (14.6% compared to 15.5%). Inversely, normal children had high percentage body fat compared to wasting children throughout the age category. The fact that stunted children exhibit high percentage body fat at an early stage may clearly depict that stunting at an early stage of this population may be associated with overweight.
