title: [Considerations on family dynamics and the malnutrition syndrome in Mexican children].
abstract: Since the early 1990s we noted that family dysfunction was more common in children with severe primary malnutrition than in children admitted to the hospital without malnutrition. Defects on feeding habits during the first year of life, especially early weaning and inadequate complementary feeding were more common in dysfunctional families. We also observed that chronic malnutrition in preschool children, and overweight and obesity in schoolchildren were more common in children from dysfunctional families. Once the association between dysfunctional family dynamics and obesity in schoolchildren was demonstrated, it was observed that low education of fathers and mothers increased twofold the possibility of family dysfunction: OR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.37-3.10 and OR: 2.47; 95% CI: 1.57-3.89, respectively. In addition, the low-income and the lower purchasing power of foods were associated to family dysfunction (p<0.05). A remaining task is to explore how to assess family dysfunction in composite, extended, single-parent families where there exist other persons vulnerable to the different entities of malnutrition syndrome and indeed depend on adults for their care, food and nutrition.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nutrición Humana de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jal., México.|Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: Edgar Manuel
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Vásquez-Garibay
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nutrición Humana de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: José Luis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: González-Rico
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Nutrición Humana de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jal., México.|Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Romero-Velarde
authors.affiliation: Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Talamantes
authors.affiliation: Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: María Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Navarro-Lozano
authors.affiliation: Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Dr. Juan I. Menchaca, Guadalajara, Jal., México.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nápoles-Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D015362:Child Nutrition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004522:Educational Status; D005195:Family Relations; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology