19. Aladili, N. Causes of Moderate and Severe Growth Failure Among Under 3 Palestinian Refugee Children in The West Bank. Bull. Palest. Ch. Soc. 1:1, 73-80, 1994, 8 pp.

A case-control study conducted in 18 refugee camps in the West Bank during 1990. The study sample comprised 72 children under three years of age suffering from moderate to severe growth failure. A similar number of controls was selected and matched on sex, age and neighborhood.

Main results include the following:
- Mothers of the cases are more likely to have had problems during pregnancy and delivery, the pre-index child mean birth interval is shorter and there is a longer delay between marriage to first pregnancy.
- Cases are more likely to have been born prematurely. They are twice as likely to have had early supplementary feeding( less than six months ), and seven times more likely to have received powdered milk.
- Mothers and siblings of the cases are significantly more likely to have had chronic ill health or disability, their families were of lower socioeconomic status, mother-child interaction is less and recent family stress is more frequent.