Students of geographic medicine, nutrition, and human development will find this volume an important addition to their libraries. Dr Mata reports on the extensive and intensive longitudinal study of nutrition and development conducted from 1963 to 1972 in an Indian village in Guatemala. This book details the health of 200 families and especially their developing children over an eight-year period with regard to the microbiologic, nutritional, environmental, and developmental components of general health status. Using multivariate analysis models, the author offers a comprehensive interpretation of the roles of nutrition and infection during pregnancy and early childhood within the natural setting that typifies a majority of the third world.
The health care practices for the newborn and infant provide interesting reading for the perinatologist, and the data provided relating to anthropometry of the newborn, immunoglobulin status, rates of congenital infection, and postnatal growth and health status are exhaustive. Unlike infants