Undernutrition and childhood infections: a prospective study of childhood infections in relation to growth in the Sudan

Nutritional Adequacy and Diet Quality Are Associated with Standardized Height-for-Age among U.S. Children

Nutritional status affects linear growth and development. However, studies on the associations between nutritional status, diet quality, and age-standardized height in children are limited. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between macro- and micronutrient intake and food consumption and height-for-age Z score (HAZ) among US children in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). This cross-sectional population-based study included 6116 US children aged 2–18 years. The usual dietary intake of nutrients and food groups was estimated by the multiple source method (MSM) using two-day food consumption data from NHANES 2007–2014. After adjusting for covariates, HAZ was positively associated with intakes of energy, protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamins A, D, E, B6, and B12, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, and iron. Children in the highest tertile of HAZ were less likely to consume lower than the EAR for vitamin E and calcium. Major foods consumed by children with lower HAZ were soft drinks, high-fat milk products, cakes, cookies, pastries, and pies, whereas children with higher HAZ tended to consume low-fat milk products, tea, and low-calorie fruit juice. These findings suggest that adequate nutritional intake, diet quality, and nutrient-dense food are important factors for height in children.

Infection Status of Rural Schoolchildren and its Relationship with Vitamin D Concentrations

OBJECTIVES

To assess the nutritional and infection status of rural schoolchildren and to study the relationship of infection status with serum 25(OH)D concentrations.

METHODS

This study was carried out in a primary school, in a rural setting, near Pune (18°N), Maharashtra. Data collected from 387 children included anthropometric, clinical, infection-related data (using a validated questionnaire) and dietary data (by 24-h recall method over 3 non-consecutive days, including a holiday) and serum 25(OH)D estimations (by ELISA).

RESULTS

Prevalence of underweight and stunting were 18% and 11% respectively. Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) related symptoms were commonly reported. Episodes of URTI were found to be significantly and negatively correlated with serum 25(OH)D concentrations (r_s = -0.14, p < 0.05) and lesser URTI episodes and duration were reported by children who were vitamin D sufficient as compared to those who were insufficient. No association of total infections was found with vitamin D status.

CONCLUSIONS

Moderate prevalence of underweight and stunting and frequent URTIs were observed in this population. Higher serum 25(OH)D concentrations and vitamin D sufficiency may be important for prevention of upper respiratory tract infections in rural children.

Effects of single and combined water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions on nutritional status of children: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Under nutrition is linked with poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) condition. However, there is conflicting evidence on the effect of WASH on nutritional status of children. This review was, therefore, conducted to estimate the pooled effect of WASH interventions on child under nutrition.

Methods

All published and unpublished cluster-randomized, non-randomized controlled trials, and before and after intervention studies conducted in developing countries were included. Relevant articles were searched from MEDLINE/PubMed, Cochrane Collaboration’s database, Web of Science, WHO Global Health Library, Google Scholar, Worldcat and ProQuest electronic databases. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using JBI critical appraisal checklist for randomized and non-randomized controlled trials. The risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias in randomized trials. The treatment effect was expressed as standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

This meta-analysis of 10 studies including 16,473 children (7776 in the intervention and 8687 in the control group) indicated that WASH interventions significantly associated with increased pooled mean height-for-age-z-score (SMD = 0.14, 95% CI = (0.09, 0.19); I² = 39.3%]. The effect of WASH on HAZ was heterogeneous in age and types of interventions. WASH intervention had more effect on HAZ among under two children [SMD = 0.20, 95% CI = (0.11, 0.29); I² = 37%]. Children who received combined WASH interventions grew better compared with children who received single interventions [SMD = 0.15, 95% CI = (0.09, 0.20); I² = 43.8%].

Conclusion

WASH interventions were significantly associated with increased mean height-for-age-z score in under 5 years old children. The effect of WASH on linear growth is markedly different with age and types of interventions, either single or combined. Implementing combined WASH interventions has a paramount benefit to improve nutritional status of children.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13052-019-0666-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cluster-randomised controlled trials of individual and combined water, sanitation, hygiene and nutritional interventions in rural Bangladesh and Kenya: the WASH Benefits study design and rationale

INTRODUCTION

Enteric infections are common during the first years of life in low-income countries and contribute to growth faltering with long-term impairment of health and development. Water quality, sanitation, handwashing and nutritional interventions can independently reduce enteric infections and growth faltering. There is little evidence that directly compares the effects of these individual and combined interventions on diarrhoea and growth when delivered to infants and young children. The objective of the WASH Benefits study is to help fill this knowledge gap.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

WASH Benefits includes two cluster-randomised trials to assess improvements in water quality, sanitation, handwashing and child nutrition-alone and in combination-to rural households with pregnant women in Kenya and Bangladesh. Geographically matched clusters (groups of household compounds in Bangladesh and villages in Kenya) will be randomised to one of six intervention arms or control. Intervention arms include water quality, sanitation, handwashing, nutrition, combined water+sanitation+handwashing (WSH) and WSH+nutrition. The studies will enrol newborn children (N=5760 in Bangladesh and N=8000 in Kenya) and measure outcomes at 12 and 24 months after intervention delivery. Primary outcomes include child length-for-age Z-scores and caregiver-reported diarrhoea. Secondary outcomes include stunting prevalence, markers of environmental enteropathy and child development scores (verbal, motor and personal/social). We will estimate unadjusted and adjusted intention-to-treat effects using semiparametric estimators and permutation tests.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Study protocols have been reviewed and approved by human subjects review boards at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Innovations for Poverty Action. Independent data safety monitoring boards in each country oversee the trials. This study is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of California, Berkeley.

REGISTRATION

Trial registration identifiers (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov): NCT01590095 (Bangladesh), NCT01704105 (Kenya).

Interactions of diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition in childhood: recent evidence from developing countries

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This review highlights recent progress toward understanding complex interactions between diarrhea, pneumonia, and undernutrition among children in low-income and middle-income countries.

RECENT FINDINGS

New studies parallel earlier reports that diarrhea and pneumonia impair children's growth and that underlying malnutrition is a major risk factor for these conditions. Episodes of diarrhea may predispose to pneumonia in undernourished children. Additional studies support breastfeeding and micronutrient supplementation for the prevention and control of diarrhea and pneumonia. Malnutrition may partially account for the reduced efficacy of oral rotavirus vaccines in low-income countries. Immunization of pregnant women against influenza also appears to reduce intrauterine growth retardation. Immunization of infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae may improve their growth. New genetic studies indicate that polymorphisms in apolipoprotein E or the leptin receptor modulate children's risk for diarrhea and Entamoeba histolytica infection, respectively, thereby linking two genes important for lipid metabolism to enteric infections.

SUMMARY

Significant advances have been made in understanding the vicious cycle of malnutrition, diarrhea, and pneumonia in developing countries. Future challenges will be to translate this progress into effective and widely accessible public health measures.

The paradox of nutrition-related diseases in the Arab countries: the need for action

The aim of this review was to highlight the current situation of nutrition-related diseases in the Arab countries, and factors associated with prevalence of these diseases. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for data relating to such nutrition-related diseases published between January 1990 and May 2011. The picture of nutritional status in the Arab countries has changed drastically over the past 30 years as a result of changes in the social and economic situation. Two contrasting nutrition-related diseases exist, those associated with inadequate intake of nutrients and unhealthy dietary habits such as growth retardation among young children and micronutrient deficiencies; and those associated with changes in lifestyle such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and obesity (diet-related non-communicable diseases). Factors contributing to nutritional problems vary from country to country, depending on socio-economic status. In general, unsound dietary habits, poor sanitation, poverty, ignorance and lack of access to safe water and health services are mainly responsible for under-nutrition. Changes in lifestyle and dietary habits as well as inactivity are associated with the occurrence of diet-related non-communicable diseases. Programs to prevent and control nutrition-related diseases are insufficient and ineffective, due mainly to a focus on curative care at the expense of preventive health care services, lack of epidemiological studies, lack of nutritional surveillance, inadequate nutrition information and lack of assessment of the cost-effectiveness of nutrition intervention programs.

The duration of diarrhea and fever is associated with growth faltering in rural Malawian children aged 6-18 months

Nutrition support programs that only focus upon better complementary feeding remain an insufficient means of limiting growth faltering in vulnerable populations of children. To determine if symptoms of acute infections correlate with the incidence of growth faltering in rural Malawian children, the associations between fever, diarrhea, and cough with anthropometric measures of stunting, wasting, and underweight were investigated. Data were analyzed from a trial where 209 children were provided with adequate complementary food and followed fortnightly from 6-18 months of age. Linear mixed model analysis was used to test for associations. Diarrheal disease was inversely associated with changes in height-for-age Z-score (HAZ), mid-upper arm circumference Z-score (MUACZ), and weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ). Fever was also inversely associated with changes in MUACZ and WAZ. These results suggest that initiatives to reduce febrile and diarrheal diseases are needed in conjunction with improved complementary feeding to limit growth faltering in rural Malawi.

A comparison of the socio-economic determinants of growth retardation in South African and Filipino infants

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association between household socio-economic status (SES) at birth and poor infant growth such as small for gestational age (SGA) and stunting across two different socio-cultural settings: South Africa and the Philippines.

DESIGN

Data were from two longitudinal birth cohorts, the Birth to Twenty (Bt20) study in South Africa and the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) in the Philippines.

SUBJECTS

Bt20 infants (n 2293 total; reduced to 758 (SGA), 450 (stunting 1 year) and 401 (stunting 2 years)) and CLHNS infants (n 2513 total; reduced to 2161 (SGA), 1820 (stunting 1 year) and 1710 (stunting 2 years)).

RESULTS

CLHNS infants were significantly more likely to be born SGA (20.9 v. 11.7 %) and be stunted at 1 year (32.6 v. 8.7 %) and 2 years (48.9 v. 21.1 %) compared with Bt20 infants. Logistic regression analyses showed that SES (index) was a significant predictor of stunting at 1 and 2 years of age in the CLHNS cohort. SES (index or individual variables) was not a significant predictor of SGA in either cohort, or of stunting in the Bt20 cohort. Maternal education, ownership of a television and toilet facilities were all independent predictors of stunting in the CLHNS cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

The social and economic milieu within the Philippines appears to place CLHNS infants at greater risk of being born SGA and being stunted compared with Bt20 infants. The present research highlights the importance of investigating the individual SES variables that predict infantile growth faltering, to identify the key areas for context-specific policy development and intervention.