Causes and consequences of child growth failure in low- and middle-income countries

Child growth failure is associated with a higher risk of illness and mortality, which contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2.2 to end malnutrition by 2030. Current prenatal and postnatal interventions, such as nutritional supplementation, have been insufficient to eliminate growth failure in low resource settings -motivating a search for key age windows and population subgroups in which to focus future preventive efforts. Quantifying the effect of early growth failure on severe outcomes is important to assess burden and longer-term impacts on the child. Here we show through an analysis of 35 longitudinal cohorts (108,336 children) that maternal and child characteristics at birth accounted for the largest attributable differences in growth. Yet, postnatal growth failure was larger than differences at birth, and characteristics of the child's household environment were additional determinants of growth failure after age 6 months. Children who experienced early ponderal or linear growth failure were at much higher risk of persistent growth failure and were 2.0 to 4.8 times more likely to die by age 24 months. High attributable risk from prenatal causes, and severe consequences for children who experienced early growth failure, support a focus on pre-conception and pregnancy as key opportunities for new preventive interventions. Our results suggest that broad improvements in wellbeing will be necessary to eliminate growth failure in low resource settings, but that screening based on weight could help identify children at highest risk of death before age 24 months.

[1]  Jade Benjamin-Chung,et al.  Targeting Learning: Robust Statistics for Reproducible Research , 2020, 2006.07333.

[2]  M. J. van der Laan,et al.  Early childhood linear growth failure in low- and middle-income countries , 2020, medRxiv.

[3]  Y. Cheung,et al.  The impact of maternal antenatal treatment with two doses of azithromycin and monthly sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine on child weight, mid-upper arm circumference and head circumference: A randomized controlled trial , 2019, PloS one.

[4]  A. Parker,et al.  Environmental enteric dysfunction and child stunting , 2019, Nutrition reviews.

[5]  J. Wells,et al.  The relationship between wasting and stunting: a retrospective cohort analysis of longitudinal data in Gambian children from 1976 to 2016 , 2019, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[6]  C. Bose,et al.  A multicountry randomized controlled trial of comprehensive maternal nutrition supplementation initiated before conception: the Women First trial , 2019, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[7]  Laura E Smith,et al.  Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial , 2018, The Lancet. Global health.

[8]  Jai K. Das,et al.  Preventive lipid-based nutrient supplements given with complementary foods to infants and young children 6 to 23 months of age for health, nutrition, and developmental outcomes. , 2019, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[9]  D. Szostak-Węgierek,et al.  Maternal Nutrition and Body Composition During Breastfeeding: Association with Human Milk Composition , 2018, Nutrients.

[10]  R. Martorell,et al.  Role of maternal preconception nutrition on offspring growth and risk of stunting across the first 1000 days in Vietnam: A prospective cohort study , 2018, PloS one.

[11]  A. Briend,et al.  Children who are both wasted and stunted are also underweight and have a high risk of death: a descriptive epidemiology of multiple anthropometric deficits using data from 51 countries , 2018, Archives of Public Health.

[12]  I. Rosenberg,et al.  Children with Poor Linear Growth Are at Risk for Repeated Relapse to Wasting after Recovery from Moderate Acute Malnutrition. , 2018, The Journal of nutrition.

[13]  C. Null,et al.  Implications of WASH Benefits trials for water and sanitation - Authors' reply. , 2018, The Lancet. Global health.

[14]  R. Haque,et al.  Species of Cryptosporidia Causing Subclinical Infection Associated With Growth Faltering in Rural and Urban Bangladesh: A Birth Cohort Study , 2018, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[15]  Y. Cheung,et al.  Child Health Outcomes After Presumptive Infection Treatment in Pregnant Women: A Randomized Trial , 2018, Pediatrics.

[16]  N. Iqbal,et al.  Promising Biomarkers of Environmental Enteric Dysfunction: A Prospective Cohort study in Pakistani Children , 2018, Scientific Reports.

[17]  A. Barros,et al.  Effect of correcting for gestational age at birth on population prevalence of early childhood undernutrition , 2018, Emerging Themes in Epidemiology.

[18]  T. Clasen,et al.  Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Bangladesh: a cluster randomised controlled trial , 2018, The Lancet. Global health.

[19]  Holly N. Dentz,et al.  Effects of water quality, sanitation, handwashing, and nutritional interventions on diarrhoea and child growth in rural Kenya: a cluster-randomised controlled trial , 2018, The Lancet. Global health.

[20]  L. Allen,et al.  Co‐causation of reduced newborn size by maternal undernutrition, infections, and inflammation , 2018, Maternal & child nutrition.

[21]  R. Heidkamp,et al.  Complementary Feeding Interventions Have a Small but Significant Impact on Linear and Ponderal Growth of Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. , 2017, The Journal of nutrition.

[22]  M. McGovern,et al.  A review of the evidence linking child stunting to economic outcomes , 2017, International journal of epidemiology.

[23]  J. Simpson,et al.  The potential benefit of scaling up malaria prevention to reduce low birth weight in Africa , 2017, PLoS medicine.

[24]  J. Ouédraogo,et al.  Comparison of Preventive and Therapeutic Zinc Supplementation in Young Children in Burkina Faso: A Cluster-Randomized, Community-Based Trial. , 2016, The Journal of nutrition.

[25]  I. Mueller,et al.  Azithromycin-containing intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy affects gestational weight gain, an important predictor of birthweight in Papua New Guinea - an exploratory analysis. , 2016, Maternal & child nutrition.

[26]  W. Petri,et al.  Respiratory viruses associated with severe pneumonia in children under 2 years old in a rural community in Pakistan , 2016, Journal of medical virology.

[27]  R. Haque,et al.  Natural History of Cryptosporidiosis in a Longitudinal Study of Slum-Dwelling Bangladeshi Children: Association with Severe Malnutrition , 2016, PLoS neglected tropical diseases.

[28]  Tianqi Chen,et al.  XGBoost: A Scalable Tree Boosting System , 2016, KDD.

[29]  W. Fawzi,et al.  Effect of zinc and multivitamin supplementation on the growth of Tanzanian children aged 6-84 wk: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. , 2016, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[30]  Ashutosh Kumar Singh,et al.  Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015 , 2016, Lancet.

[31]  Y. Cheung,et al.  Effect of complementary feeding with lipid-based nutrient supplements and corn-soy blend on the incidence of stunting and linear growth among 6- to 18-month-old infants and children in rural Malawi. , 2015, Maternal & child nutrition.

[32]  W. Fawzi,et al.  Malnutrition and Its Determinants Are Associated with Suboptimal Cognitive, Communication, and Motor Development in Tanzanian Children. , 2015, The Journal of nutrition.

[33]  S. Wood,et al.  Smoothing Parameter and Model Selection for General Smooth Models , 2015, 1511.03864.

[34]  A. Massie,et al.  Effect of maternal multiple micronutrient vs iron-folic acid supplementation on infant mortality and adverse birth outcomes in rural Bangladesh: The JiVitA-3 randomized trial , 2015 .

[35]  R. Haque,et al.  The "Performance of Rotavirus and Oral Polio Vaccines in Developing Countries" (PROVIDE) study: description of methods of an interventional study designed to explore complex biologic problems. , 2015, The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene.

[36]  S. de Pee,et al.  Effect of fortified complementary food supplementation on child growth in rural Bangladesh: a cluster-randomized trial , 2015, International journal of epidemiology.

[37]  J. Ouédraogo,et al.  Small-Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements, Regardless of Their Zinc Content, Increase Growth and Reduce the Prevalence of Stunting and Wasting in Young Burkinabe Children: A Cluster-Randomized Trial , 2015, PloS one.

[38]  J. Aranceta Bartrina,et al.  Household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS). , 2015, Nutricion hospitalaria.

[39]  A. Massie,et al.  Effect of maternal multiple micronutrient vs iron-folic acid supplementation on infant mortality and adverse birth outcomes in rural Bangladesh: the JiVitA-3 randomized trial. , 2014, JAMA.

[40]  E. Svensen,et al.  The etiology, risk factors, and interactions of enteric infections and malnutrition and the consequences for child health and development study (MAL-ED): description of the Tanzanian site. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[41]  P. Bessong,et al.  Development of the Dzimauli community in Vhembe District, Limpopo province of South Africa, for the MAL-ED cohort study. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[42]  L. Caulfield,et al.  Santa Clara de Nanay: the MAL-ED cohort in Peru. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[43]  R. Guerrant,et al.  Geography, population, demography, socioeconomic, anthropometry, and environmental status in the MAL-ED cohort and case-control study Sites in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[44]  R. Haque,et al.  The MAL-ED cohort study in Mirpur, Bangladesh. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[45]  G. Kang,et al.  Establishment of the MAL-ED birth cohort study site in Vellore, Southern India. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[46]  S. Shrestha,et al.  Bhaktapur, Nepal: the MAL-ED birth cohort study in Nepal. , 2014, Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

[47]  J. Fanzo,et al.  Addressing Chronic Malnutrition through Multi-Sectoral, Sustainable Approaches: A Review of the Causes and Consequences , 2014, Front. Nutr..

[48]  R. Gilman,et al.  First Detected Helicobacter pylori Infection in Infancy Modifies the Association Between Diarrheal Disease and Childhood Growth in Peru , 2014, Helicobacter.

[49]  G. Kang,et al.  The first 1000 days of life: prenatal and postnatal risk factors for morbidity and growth in a birth cohort in southern India , 2014, BMJ Open.

[50]  P. Jones,et al.  Updated high‐resolution grids of monthly climatic observations – the CRU TS3.10 Dataset , 2014 .

[51]  Patrick Webb,et al.  Evidence-based interventions for improvement of maternal and child nutrition: what can be done and at what cost? , 2013, The Lancet.

[52]  R. Martorell,et al.  Maternal Height and Child Growth Patterns , 2013, The Journal of pediatrics.

[53]  W. Fawzi,et al.  The effect of multiple anthropometric deficits on child mortality: meta-analysis of individual data in 10 prospective studies from developing countries. , 2013, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[54]  Mark A. Miller,et al.  Fecal Markers of Intestinal Inflammation and Permeability Associated with the Subsequent Acquisition of Linear Growth Deficits in Infants , 2013, The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene.

[55]  A Gasparrini,et al.  Multivariate meta-analysis for non-linear and other multi-parameter associations , 2012, Statistics in medicine.

[56]  G. Kang,et al.  Wasting is associated with stunting in early childhood. , 2012, The Journal of nutrition.

[57]  R. Martorell,et al.  Intergenerational influences on child growth and undernutrition. , 2012, Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology.

[58]  W. Petri,et al.  Environmental enteropathy: critical implications of a poorly understood condition. , 2012, Trends in molecular medicine.

[59]  E. Piwoz,et al.  Promoting healthy growth: what are the priorities for research and action? , 2012, Advances in nutrition.

[60]  I. Shpitser,et al.  A New Criterion for Confounder Selection , 2011, Biometrics.

[61]  J. Stanford,et al.  Impact of early and concurrent stunting on cognition. , 2011, Maternal & child nutrition.

[62]  G. Kang,et al.  Protective effect of natural rotavirus infection in an Indian birth cohort. , 2011, The New England journal of medicine.

[63]  M. Franco,et al.  Long-Lasting Effects of Undernutrition , 2011, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[64]  M. J. van der Laan,et al.  The International Journal of Biostatistics Collaborative Double Robust Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation , 2011 .

[65]  B. Bogin,et al.  Influence of maternal stature, pregnancy age, and infant birth weight on growth during childhood in Yucatan, Mexico: A test of the intergenerational effects hypothesis , 2009, American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council.

[66]  Mark J. van der Laan,et al.  Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation: A Gentle Introduction , 2009 .

[67]  Robert E Black,et al.  What works? Interventions for maternal and child undernutrition and survival , 2008, The Lancet.

[68]  B. Torún,et al.  Effects of bovine serum concentrate, with or without supplemental micronutrients, on the growth, morbidity, and micronutrient status of young children in a low-income, peri-urban Guatemalan community , 2008, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

[69]  L. Adair Size at birth and growth trajectories to young adulthood , 2007, American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council.

[70]  P. Glewwe,et al.  Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries , 2007, The Lancet.

[71]  Jennifer Coates,et al.  Burden of household food insecurity in urban slum settings , 2019, PloS one.

[72]  M. J. van der Laan,et al.  Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology Super Learner , 2010 .

[73]  F. Huq,et al.  Diarrheal illness in a cohort of children 0–2 years of age in rural Bangladesh: I. Incidence and risk factors , 2006 .

[74]  D. M. Ha,et al.  A gentle introduction , 2006 .

[75]  Wolfgang Viechtbauer,et al.  Bias and Efficiency of Meta-Analytic Variance Estimators in the Random-Effects Model , 2005 .

[76]  L. Moulton,et al.  Effect of postpartum maternal or neonatal vitamin A supplementation on infant mortality among infants born to HIV-negative mothers in Zimbabwe. , 2005, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[77]  R. Black,et al.  An educational intervention to promote appropriate complementary feeding practices and physical growth in infants and young children in rural Haryana, India. , 2004, The Journal of nutrition.

[78]  Clive Osmond,et al.  Relation of serial changes in childhood body-mass index to impaired glucose tolerance in young adulthood. , 2004, The New England journal of medicine.

[79]  B. Giraudeau [The cluster-randomized trial]. , 2004, Medecine sciences : M/S.

[80]  Xiaonan Xue,et al.  Estimating the relative risk in cohort studies and clinical trials of common outcomes. , 2003, American journal of epidemiology.

[81]  L. Haddad,et al.  Reducing Child Malnutrition: How Far Does Income Growth Take Us? , 2003 .

[82]  Robert W Platt,et al.  Breastfeeding and infant growth: biology or bias? , 2002, Pediatrics.

[83]  J. Rohde,et al.  Food supplementation with encouragement to feed it to infants from 4 to 12 months of age has a small impact on weight gain. , 2001, The Journal of nutrition.

[84]  M S Kramer,et al.  Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (PROBIT): a randomized trial in the Republic of Belarus. , 2001, JAMA.

[85]  Stefan Sperlich,et al.  Generalized Additive Models , 2014 .

[86]  J. Pearl,et al.  Confounding and Collapsibility in Causal Inference , 1999 .

[87]  L. Moulton,et al.  Randomised trial to assess benefits and safety of vitamin A supplementation linked to immunisation in early infancy , 1998, The Lancet.

[88]  J. Morduch,et al.  Sibling rivalry and the gender gap: Evidence from child health outcomes in Ghana , 1998, Journal of population economics.

[89]  R. Tibshirani Regression Shrinkage and Selection via the Lasso , 1996 .

[90]  R. Martorell,et al.  Nutritional impact of supplementation in the INCAP longitudinal study: analytic strategies and inferences. , 1995, The Journal of nutrition.

[91]  Z. Anusz [Statistics in epidemiology]. , 1974, Pielegniarka i polozna.