Growth in height and weight of urban Guatemalan primary school children of low and high socioeconomic class

A mixed longitudinal series of height and weight measurements for a sample of 155 urban Guatemalan primary school children of low socioeconomic class are compared with an age-matched sample of Guatemalan children of high socioeconomic class. Within samples there are no significant differences in size between boys and girls. Between socioeconomic samples significant differences in amount of growth exist at all ages. The absolute differences in height of the girls remain constant over time. The absolute differences in height of the boys significantly increase between the ages of 7 and 13. The differences in weight between samples significantly increase with age for both sexes. Despite these differences there is a linear relationship between height and weight for both samples when the children are below a height of 144.8 cm and weight of 37.5 kg. Above this body size the height for weight relationship is non-linear but still similar for all children. This implies that age, sex and socioeconomic class do not affect the relationship between height and weight