Abstract
Background: Stunting and wasting are accepted, widely, as health-risk indicators of individuals at micro level, and that of population
at macro level. These two conditions, when present together in a child, are the early-warning signals in the context of health-andnutrition status. However, link between stunting and wasting has been rarely studied.
Case Presentation: Association between the two conditions was observed in 2 sisters (QJ and JJ), who were registered in SF
Laboratory’s growth-monitoring program. They were part of a family, consisting of father, mother, 3 daughters and a son. This family
was monitored for a period of 4 years (2007-2011), through anthropometric measurements of all 4 siblings. Height- and mass-data
analysis indicated that wasting, present for a longer period, in the elder sister (QJ) may be the cause of a marked drop in height, while
the anthropometric-data analysis of the younger one, JJ, gave some evidence in favor of wasting being induced by stunting.
Mathematical Model: Mathematical-statistical model, given by Kamal, Firdous and Alam in 2004, was modified to study the cases
presented. Concepts of growth (height) velocity and mass (weight) gain (loss) were abandoned and replaced by trajectories as well as
height and mass percentiles. A jumping up (down) on these trajectories represented ‘real-gain (-loss)’. A physical gain in height
(mass) over a certain period, accompanied by a drop in percentile during the same period was interpreted as ‘pseudo-gain’.
Conclusion: This family’s data highlighted stunting, induced by wasting and wasting, induced by stunting. Besides investigating
association between stunting and wasting, we, also, tried to find out the underlying mechanisms and discover the agents causing the
two conditions. Longitudinal studies should focus on physiological and psychological bases of the potential relations of childhood
stunting and wasting, starting from conception and following children till old age, in particular, looking for prevalence of stunting
(with associated wasting) in a community and vice versa.
