Nutritional status of Southeast Asian refugee children

Abstract

Since 1975 nearly 300,000 Indochinese refugees have been relocated in the United States. The Nutrition Division, Centers for Disease Control. Atlanta, surveyed the medical records of four west coast clinics to obtain nutrition-related data on 821 Southeast Asian refugee children under six years of age, arriving between July 1979 and June 1989. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, and anthropometric data were compared to those of a comparison group of Southeast Asian children screened prior to 1979 and to a National Health Examination Survey reference population. The newly-arrived refugee group was found to be highly anemic and stunted relative to the comparison group. Although stunted, the study group did not appear greatly wasted.