Early-childhood linear growth faltering in low- and middle-income countries

Benjamin-Chung, Jade and Mertens, Andrew and Colford, John M. and Hubbard, Alan E. and van der Laan, Mark J. and Coyle, Jeremy and Sofrygin, Oleg and Cai, Wilson and Nguyen, Anna and Pokpongkiat, Nolan N. and Djajadi, Stephanie and Seth, Anmol and Jilek, Wendy and Jung, Esther and Chung, Esther O. and Rosete, Sonali and Hejazi, Nima and Malenica, Ivana and Li, Haodong and Hafen, Ryan and Subramoney, Vishak and Häggström, Jonas and Norman, Thea and Brown, Kenneth H. and Christian, Parul and Arnold, Benjamin F. and Abbeddou, Souheila and Adair, Linda S. and Ahmed, Tahmeed and Ali, Asad and Ali, Hasmot and Ashorn, Per and Bahl, Rajiv and Barreto, Mauricio L. and Begín, France and Bessong, Pascal Obong and Bhan, Maharaj Kishan and Bhandari, Nita and Bhargava, Santosh K. and Bhutta, Zulfiqar A. and Black, Robert E. and Bodhidatta, Ladaporn and Carba, Delia and Gonzalez Casanova, Ines and Checkley, William and Crabtree, Jean E. and Dewey, Kathryn G. and Duggan, Christopher P. and Fall, Caroline H. D. and Faruque, Abu Syed Golam and Fawzi, Wafaie W. and da Silva Filho, José Quirino and Gilman, Robert H. and Guerrant, Richard L. and Haque, Rashidul and Hess, Sonja Y. and Houpt, Eric R. and Humphrey, Jean H. and Iqbal, Najeeha Talat and Jimenez, Elizabeth Yakes and John, Jacob and John, Sushil Matthew and Kang, Gagandeep and Kosek, Margaret and Kramer, Michael S. and Labrique, Alain and Lee, Nanette R. and Lima, Aldo Ângelo Moreira and Mahfuz, Mustafa and Mahopo, Tjale Cloupas and Maleta, Kenneth and Manandhar, Dharma S. and Manji, Karim P. and Martorell, Reynaldo and Mazumder, Sarmila and Mduma, Estomih and Mohan, Venkata Raghava and Moore, Sophie E. and Mostafa, Ishita and Ntozini, Robert and Nyathi, Mzwakhe Emanuel and Olortegui, Maribel Paredes and Petri, William A. and Premkumar, Prasanna Samuel and Prentice, Andrew M. and Rahman, Najeeb and Sachdev, Harshpal Singh and Sadiq, Kamran and Sarkar, Rajiv and Saville, Naomi M. and Shaikh, Saijuddin and Shrestha, Bhim P. and Shrestha, Sanjaya Kumar and Soares, Alberto Melo and Sonko, Bakary and Stein, Aryeh D. and Svensen, Erling and Syed, Sana and Umrani, Fayaz and Ward, Honorine D. and West, Keith P. and Wu, Lee Shu Fune and Yang, Seungmi and Yori, Pablo Penataro (2023) Early-childhood linear growth faltering in low- and middle-income countries. Nature, 621 (7979). pp. 550-557. ISSN 0028-0836

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Abstract

Globally, 149 million children under 5 years of age are estimated to be stunted (length more than 2 standard deviations below international growth standards)1,2. Stunting, a form of linear growth faltering, increases the risk of illness, impaired cognitive development and mortality. Global stunting estimates rely on cross-sectional surveys, which cannot provide direct information about the timing of onset or persistence of growth faltering—a key consideration for defining critical windows to deliver preventive interventions. Here we completed a pooled analysis of longitudinal studies in low- and middle-income countries (n = 32 cohorts, 52,640 children, ages 0–24 months), allowing us to identify the typical age of onset of linear growth faltering and to investigate recurrent faltering in early life. The highest incidence of stunting onset occurred from birth to the age of 3 months, with substantially higher stunting at birth in South Asia. From 0 to 15 months, stunting reversal was rare; children who reversed their stunting status frequently relapsed, and relapse rates were substantially higher among children born stunted. Early onset and low reversal rates suggest that improving children’s linear growth will require life course interventions for women of childbearing age and a greater emphasis on interventions for children under 6 months of age.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Open Academic > Multidisciplinary
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email admin@eprint.stmopenacademic.com
Date Deposited: 14 Nov 2023 07:17
Last Modified: 14 Nov 2023 07:17
URI: http://publish.sub7journal.com/id/eprint/1643

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