The state of health’ of an individual is affected by the intake of food and its utiIization, Nutrition is a physiological fact which helps organisms to assimilate the nutrients of the food for proper maintenance and growth and development of the body. It is a combination of processes by which all parts of the body receive and utilize the materials necessary for their growth and renewal of all the components. When a person receives and utilizes essential nutrients in proper proportions according to the requirements of body it is called optimum nutrition. It is the state of a wellbalanced diet in which all the essential nutrients is supplied to meet the body’s requirements, On the other hand a poor nutritional status refers to the state of inadequate as well as excessive intake or improper utilization of the nutrients to meet the body’s requirements.
Growth is’ an anabolic process. Growth may be defined as an increase in size or mass, primarily resulting at the cellular level from hypertrophy and hyperplasia, and from interstitial accretion (Thornpson, 1971). Based on the above definition, body cells, tissues, organe1les, organs, organ systems and organisms all participate . in growth process. Human growth, however, is linear till its cessation and turns transverse thereupon in adulthood. It represents most dramatic increase in size.
When a researcher measures human growth at regular intervals, the resultant curve assumes a relatively smooth shape and growth is then viewed as a continuous process.
The curve of human growth can be divided into five distinct phases. These phases are:
- i) rapid infant growth
- ii) steady childhood growth
- iii) very rapid adolescent growth
- iv) mid-growth spurt and
- v) slow growth as the individual approaches adulthood.
The majority of growth occurs during infancy and childhood, while the most important physical changes occur during adolescence. The important growth curves are the velocity curve, acceleration curve and distance curve. The meth: lds of human growth studies are basically cross-sectional, longitudinal and mixed 10ngitudinal in nature. Accurate and reliable measurements of the physical body size are necessary to assess the growth status of an individual. Positive increases ia successive anthropometric variables such as weight and height generally is indicative of the fact that an individual is growing. Standardized techniques are the main criteria for the comparison of the data obtained with that of the references.
Measurement techniques for growth assessment can be easily assessed in the existing literature. The ‘Anthropometric Standardization Reference Manual’ (1998) is one of the best manuals that are used presently to record anthropometric data. The basic modality is the relation between growth and size is that the growth is :a kind of velocity and measures the rate of change of size over a certain period of time. The measurements are taken at regular intervals over a specified period of time.
Did you know that the
- The oldest growth record is that complied by De Montbeillard who had been measuring the height of his son about every 6 months from his birth in 1759 until the latter was 18 years of age in 1777.
- It was Scammon who translated the measurements recorded by De Montbeillard into centimetres. Scammon published his results in the form of a chart in the year 1921 in the premier journal “American Journal of Physical Anthropology” and his paper was entitled “The First Seriatim Study of Human Growth”.
| By joining together the data points at each age, Scammon produced a curve that described the height achieved at any age, which became known as a height distance or height-for-age curve. |