The effects of vegan and traditional diets on five anthropometric measurements in children birth through five years of age

Abstract

Height (or recumbent length) , weight, head circumference, triceps skinfold thickness, and subscapular skinfold thickness measurements were recorded on a total of 52 Ss following 2 different diets: vegan and traditional, Of the 26 children in each diet group, 14 were male and 12 were female. An analysis of covariance, with age as the covariate, was calculated on the anthropometric readings. No significant difference was found between the 5 measurements of vegan and traditional Ss. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation was carried out on 6 intra-group correlations among the measurementsr weight/triceps, weigh t$subscapular , weigh t/he ight , triceps/subscapular , height/triceps, and height/subscapular . The correlations between weight/height and triceps/subscapular were significant at p < .05 in all 4 diet-sex groups, male vegan, female vegan, male traditional, and female traditional. A Fisher's Zf Transformation was calculated on the above 6 correlations on an inter-group basis. No significant difference was found at p < .05 A 24-hour Diet Recall and a Diet History Questionnaire were administered to the mothers of the Ss. Group mean scores were calculated for a11 5 body measurements. In addition, anthropometric findings were descriptively examined in relation to 1976 National Center for Health Statistics Growth Norms, It was concluded from this study that the vegan and traditional children were not significantly different in 5 anthropometric measurements. Among other variables, d i e t was shown to have no significant impact on these body measurements when comparing vegan and traditional Ss.