Malabsorption of carbohydrate from rice and child growth: a longitudinal study with the breath-hydrogen test in Burmese village children

Abstract

Breath-hydrogen tests were performed after a rice meal (3 g cooked rice/kg body wt, equivalent to 1 g carbohydrate/kg body wt) at monthly intervals for 6 mo on 75 village children aged 1-59 mo who were known hydrogen producers. The overall rate for rice-carbohydrate malabsorption was 46.7% (range 37.3-56.0%). Anthropometric measurements were made every 3 mo and growth rates were calculated. Forty-six percent to 59% of children were less than or equal to -3 SD of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) median weight-for-age and length-for-age and less than -2 SD of the NCHS median weight-for-length. Rice malabsorbers (ie, those with hydrogen peaks greater than or equal to 10 ppm above baseline concentrations) in the age groups 36-47 mo and 48-59 mo had statistically significant diminished growth expressed as percent gain in length per annum per child (p less than 0.02). Thus, rice malabsorbers had a deficit in linear growth of 2.7 cm/y (range 2.5-2.9 cm/y) for children aged 36-47 mo old and 1.9 cm/y (range 1.7-2.1 cm/y) for children aged 48-59 mo.