American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 5, 629-633, Copyright © 1957 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Serum Cholesterol Levels in School Children from Three Socio-Economic Groups

¹ From the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP), Guatemala City, Guatemala, C. A.

Total serum cholesterol was determined in eight boys and eight girls selected at random for each age from seven through twelve in schools with children from the following three population groups: urban upper-income business and professional families, urban lower-income families living in a poor district of Guatemala City, and lower-income families in a rural village. The former consumed about 69 g of protein per day and received 37 per cent of their calories from fat as compared with 47 g and 15 per cent for the urban lower-income and 67 g of protein and 8 per cent of fat calories for the rural group. The amount of animal protein consumed by the three groups was 39, 10, and 6 g respectively. The urban children tended to be heavier and taller; their skin-folds over the mid-triceps area were thicker. The serum cholesterol levels showed no age differences within groups. The average cholesterol values for boys were: urban upper-income, 187.2 mg/100 ml (Standard Deviation: 26.8); urban lower-income, 143.0 mg/100 ml (S.D. 28.9) and rural lower-income, 121.1 mg/100 ml (S.D. 24.0). The corresponding values for girls were: 187.6 (S.D. 29.9); 156.0 (S.D. 29.5) and 127.7 mg/l00 ml (S.D. 24.0). All of the serum cholesterol differences among the groups were statistically significant.