Growth faltering and catch-up growth in relation to environmental change in children of a disadvantaged community from Guatemala City

An integrative approach to studying plasticity in growth disruption and outcomes: A bioarchaeological case study of Napoleonic soldiers

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate how much variation in adult stature and body mass can be explained by growth disruption among soldiers who served in Napoleon's Grand Army during the Russian Campaign of 1812.

METHODS

Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) were recorded as representations of early life growth disruption, while the impact on future growth was assessed using maximum femur length (n = 73) as a proxy for stature and maximum femoral head diameter (n = 25) as a proxy for body mass. LEH frequency, severity, age at first formation, and age at last formation served as explanatory variables in a multiple regression analysis to test the effect of these variables on maximum femur length and maximum femoral head diameter.

RESULTS

The multiple regression model produced statistically significant results for maximum femur length (F-statistic = 3.05, df = 5 and 67, P = .02), with some variation in stature (adjusted r² = 0.13) attributable to variation in growth disruption. The multiple regression model for maximum femoral head diameter was not statistically significant (F-statistic = 1.87, df = 5 and 19, P = .15).

CONCLUSIONS

We hypothesized stress events during early life growth and development would have significant, negative, and cumulative effects on growth outcomes in adulthood. The results did not support our hypothesis. Instead, some variables and interactions had negative effects on stature, whereas others had positive effects. This is likely due to catch-up growth, the relationship between acute and chronic stress and growth, resilience, and plasticity in human growth over the life course.

Childhood growth, schooling, and cognitive development: further evidence from the Young Lives study

BACKGROUND

A growing literature has linked early childhood growth to later-life cognition and schooling outcomes in developing countries. Although existing evidence suggests that children's ability to recover from early growth delays in later childhood is limited, longitudinal studies on the persistence and risk of growth faltering beyond age 5 y remain scarce.

OBJECTIVE

Using longitudinal data recently collected from 4 developing countries as part of the Young Lives study, we investigated catch-up growth in children between the ages of 8 and 15 y and the effects of growth during this late-childhood and early-adolescence period on schooling and developmental outcomes.

DESIGN

We analyzed the associations between children's physical growth and development by using longitudinal data from 3327 children aged 8-15 y collected in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam as part of the Young Lives project.

RESULTS

The study yielded 2 main results. First, 36% of children stunted at age 8 y managed to catch up with their peers by age 15 y, and those who caught up had smaller deficits in cognitive scores than did children who remained stunted. Second, physical growth faltering was not restricted to early childhood but rather affected a substantial share of children in the 8-15-y age range, with large negative consequences for cognition and schooling outcomes.

CONCLUSION

The results from this study suggest that child development in developing countries is a dynamic process offering continued opportunities for children to catch up during adolescence and sustained risks for children to fall behind in their developmental trajectories.

Linear enamel hypoplasia and growth in an Australian Aboriginal community: not so small, but not so healthy either

BACKGROUND

While much is strongly suspected about synergisms linking courses of growth and development with nutrient intakes, immune function, disease exposures, and energy expenditures, debates remain regarding the probability of permanent impairments to growth and function under various circumstances.

AIM

This study tests a series of related hypotheses in an attempt to reconcile evidence of increasing physiological stress among Warlpiri and Pintubi infants and young children following settlement in the 1940s with their frequently rapid and undelayed longitudinal growth in stature during adolescence.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The study used archived cross-sectional and longitudinal records of stature, weight, and dental casts collected by the Dental School at the University of Adelaide beginning in 1951 at the then recently settled community of Yuendumu. Longitudinal modelling of height data and all statistical tests were accomplished using SYSTAT 10. Height, weight, and BMI (kg m-2) for age z-scores were calculated using NCHS reference data. Dental casts were scored for linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) with each defect assigned to an enamel developmental unit. The extent of height catch-up was estimated using conditional height gain.

RESULTS

Cross-sectional analyses indicate significant associations between birth year and women's heights (n = 105, p = 0.02) or height for age z-scores (p = 0.003), but no similar associations among men. Final height for age z-score was significantly associated with sex (p < 0.0005), onset (p = 0.031), and an onset by number of enamel defects interaction (p = 0.033). Late adolescent height z-scores were only significantly negatively associated with increasing numbers of defects among individuals with enamel defects appearing prior to about 18 months of age (n = 60, p = 0.019). With longitudinally estimated age at peak height velocity (APHV) statistically controlled, peak height velocity (PHV) was similarly significantly positively associated with conditional height gain in males (n = 50, p = 0.01) and females (n = 31, p = 0.05). Exploratory analyses suggest that with timing and intensity of PHV controlled, childhood body mass was only significantly positively associated with catch-up in height among those who experienced defect onset relatively early (n = 80, p = 0.005).

CONCLUSION

Results help explain previously documented, and apparently contradictory, outcomes of settlement processes. Rapid and relatively undelayed late childhood and adolescent growth associated with catch-up in height occurred through a confluence of increasing early childhood systemic stress followed by increases in net energy consumption that probably increased as children aged.

Impacts of dietary intake and helminth infection on diversity in growth among schoolchildren in rural south China: A four-year longitudinal study

The authors carried out six transverse anthropometric, dietary, and parasitological surveys of 274 schoolchildren (138 boys and 136 girls), aged 10-12 years (in 2001), from the Dongting Lake region in rural South China from 2001 to 2005 to examine intra-population differences in growth. Compared to the Chinese references, the subject children were judged to be retarded in growth at the population level. Comparisons among tertiles classified by the extents of change in weight-for-age Z score from the first to the last survey revealed significant effects of dietary intakes and parasite infections. In particular, there were two observations for the high-tertile boys and girls, whose Z scores of height-for-age, weight-for-age and BMI-for-age in higher ages were similar to, or higher than, the Chinese references. First, their energy intakes were larger than those of mid- and low-tertile boys and girls but were only 80-88% of the recommended dietary allowances for Chinese. Second, they were characterized by high prevalence of Schistosoma japonicum at the first survey but nil from the second survey. In conclusion, there is a high possibility that the children, who are recognized as undernourished at the population level, are able to attain the Chinese standards by increase of energy intake to the level of 10% lower than the recommended allowance for Chinese and eradication of S. japonicum.