JOURNAL TRANSCRIPT

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Growth and hematological changes in the Eskimo children of Wainwright, Alaska: 1968 to 1 9771 2 Kenneth

M Petersen,

MD

and

Larry

J Brant,

PhD

KEY WORDS subsistence

Anthropometry,

child

Introduction Many investigators have noted the smaller stature of the Alaskan Eskimo as compared to a reference North American white population (1-3). This difference might be due to genetic or environmental differences, nutritional deprivation, deficient primary health care, or a combination of these or other factors. Ifthere were only genetic differences to account for the smaller stature of the Eskimo, then one would not expect to find a difference in statures between two cohorts of Eskimo children from a stable, isolated, and homogeneous village collected at two time intervals roughly 10 yr apart. The purpose of this study is to test whether there are any differences in growth and nutritional status between two cohorts of Eskimo children observed in 1968 and 1977. Wainwright is a village of 375 Inupiat Eskimos located on the Arctic Ocean about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The Wainwright Eskimos still maintain a lifestyle heavily dependent on subsistence hunting for a substantial portion of their diet. In 1968, as part of the United States’ participation in the International Biological Pro460

The American

Journal

of Clinical

health

services,

diet, Eskimos,

hemoglobin,

nutrition,

gram’s study of circumpolar peoples, the growth and nutrition of children in Wainwright, AK were assessed (4). An important finding was the anemia found in children less than 6 yr of age (5, 6). Also children in that same age group were of notably smaller stature than the North American reference population (6). A subsequent preliminary review of the village health records in 1977 (Petersen KM, unpublished observations) suggested that anemia and decreased stature in children under 6 yr old was not as preyalent as had been reported in the 1968 study. In 1968 the Community Health Aide Program (7) was established providing primary health care on a daily basis. Because most Alaskan Eskimos live in small, isolated yillages where there are few or no physicians, I

From

the Pediatric

Service,

Alaska

Native

Medical

Center, Public Health Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, Anchorage, AK 99510, and Human Performance Section, Gerontology Research Center, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD 21224. 2 Address reprint requests to: Larry J Brant, PhD, Longitudinal Program, Gerontology Research Center, Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, MD 21224. Received April 2l, 1983. Accepted for publication October 4, 1983.

Nutrition

39: MARCH 1984, pp 460-465. Printed © 1984 American Society for Clinical

in U.S.A. Nutrition

Downloaded from ajcn.nutrition.org at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV PATERNO LIBRARY on March 6, 2016

ABSTRACT The growth and hematological status ofall 152 Eskimo children of Wainwright, AK observed in 1977 are reported and compared with the respective status ofthe children living there in 1968. Fifty-two children (34%) in the 1977 study were also in the 1968 study. Comparison of height data observed in 1977 with those observed in 1968 reveals that male children less than 1 1 yr of age and female children ages 3 to 9 yr showed a significant improvement in stature (p