The Relationship Between Linguistic Input and Communication Outcomes in Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss: The Impact of Device Fitting.

Although the elderly fraction of the human population is growing on a global basis, the proportion is increasing at an unusually high rate in some developing countries, including those of Latin America (). By 2025, one in seven people in the region will be more than 60 years old (). Problems associated with this increase go beyond higher demand for health services in poor settings. Exposure early in life to deleterious conditions related to poverty, including diseases, malnutrition, and prenatal stress, may influence the aging process (; ; ), so the health status of the elderly is likely to be worse in Latin America than in developed countries (; ). There is also evidence that older migrants might require special medical attention in their new host countries (). Information about the current health status of the elderly Latin Americans populations is not only of epidemiological interest but is also necessary for assessing the present and future needs of this vulnerable population and for improving public health policies. Anthropometric measurements, such as weight, height, and body mass index (BMI), provide a simple, inexpensive, and noninvasive method for monitoring health and nutritional status and assessing risk of diseases (). Due to their ubiquitous use in clinical and epidemiological settings, it is important to develop information that will improve the ability of health professionals to classify an individual as at risk based on these measurements. This information includes baseline data for healthy individuals of the same sex and age group, either from the same population or from a comparable population. Acquiring such data among elderly participants is challenging, as there is a high prevalence of multiple health problems in the older segment of the population, and few are completely free of disease. The criteria used to determine ranges of anthropometric values that should be considered normal, desirable, or optimum are controversial, particularly among elderly populations. Weight and BMI values change gradually during old age and are influenced by many health conditions (). Traditionally, the criterion for setting weight guidelines has been the range of weights that correspond to the lowest mortality (), but many studies have shown that the relationship between BMI and mortality is attenuated in old age (see , for a review and meta-analysis). Although optimum BMI was reported to not differ significantly between adult Latin Americans and Hispanics, non-Hispanic Whites, and non-Hispanic Blacks residing in the United States (), several investigators have questioned whether the cut points for obesity currently used in the United States and most European countries are appropriate for use in other countries and in different ethnic groups (; ; ). Multiethnic studies of elderly individuals in the United States showed that weight was lower for Mexican American men and women than for non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanics Whites ().