The Prevalence of Stunting, Underweight and Wasting Among Autistic Children in the Sultanate of Oman

Background: Anthropometric measures are used to evaluate the nutritional status of infants and children. Z-scores (number of standard deviations (SD) above or below the mean) are valuable in monitoring the prevalence of stunting (height for age), underweight (weight for age) and wasting (weight for height) among preschool children.

Objectives: to assess the prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting among autistic children in the Sultanate of Oman.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in which the autistic child’s weight and height are expressed in standard scores of the median of the international references, National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS), as relevant to their age and gender.
Results: Moderate stunting is indicated by height for age below -2 SD, moderate underweight is indicated by weight for age below -2 SD and moderate wasting is indicated by weight for height below -2 SD.  Below -3 SD indicates a severe condition.
Conclusions: Stunting and underweight prevalence among autistic children represent long term, chronic, undernutrition and needs time to develop and recover, whereas wasting is due to short term, acute, malnutrition and can be improved rapidly. Improving the nutritional status of autistic children is crucial for improving these anthropometric indices.