Hydroxyproline excretion and nutritional status of children1’2

Malnutrition, especially among children, is one of the world’s most pressing problems. Although there is no great difficulty in dis-tinguishing between a well-fed child and a seriously malnourished one, there are many difficulties in detecting subclinical malnutri-tion in children. Several investigators have found that the amount of hydroxyproline ex-creted in the urine is correlated with growth rates (1-6). Whitehead (6) felt that the level of urinary hydroxyproline excretion could be used for detecting growth failure before changes in body weight occur. Because of the increased interest in the use of hydroxypro-line excretion as a measure of nutritiona