Growth status of children with and without sickle cell trait.

Because of the suggestions that children with sickle cell trait (Hb/AS) are smaller and lighter, the anthropometric measurements of 50 such children from polygamous families were compared with a matched group of 50 children with normal hemoglobin (Hb/AA) who were offspring of the same fathers and were living under identical conditions. This technique was adopted in minimize the effects of heredity and nutrition. When these hereditary and nutritional effects were excluded there were no significant differences between the anthropometric measurements of the two groups.