A critical biocultural approach to early growth in the United States

Abstract

Objectives A critical biocultural anthropology seeks to link perspectives from social theory and ethnography to human biology. In the United States (U.S.), multiple forms of structural inequalities affect early growth, including racism and poverty. The goal of this paper is to test the effects of social inequalities on birth weight and later height in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES), and to contextualize potential pathways of embodiment that link social structure and biology. Methods This study used data from 8392 children ages 0–5 years from the 2005 to 2016 NHANES. Reported birth weight and measured length/height (converted to height‐for‐age z‐scores) were used as outcome variables, while various measures of socioeconomic status and the NHANES‐defined race and ethnicity categories were operationalized as social variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was chosen to represent the data. Results The final model represented an excellent fit to the data. Higher birth weights were associated with higher height‐for‐age z‐scores. The Black racial category was associated with lower birth weight and higher height‐for‐age z‐score, while the “Other” racial category was also associated with lower birth weight. The socioeconomic status factor variable was significantly associated with birth weight and height‐for‐age z‐scores. There were also multiple indirect effects of social variables on height‐for‐age z‐scores mediated via their effects on birth weight. Conclusions Inequalities in race and socioeconomic status persist in birth weight and early childhood stature in the U.S. These findings can be contextualized by a critical biocultural anthropology that integrates lived experiences and pathways of embodiment.

Factors Contributing to the Health of 0- to 5-Year-Old Low-Birth-Weight Children in the United States: Application of the Multiple Disadvantage Model

“…Prior studies showed that low birth weight was related to racism [2], being part of a racial/ethnic minority [2][3][4][5][6][7], poverty [2,3], food insecurity and a lack of health insurance coverage [7], having a single mother, the mother's age and education [3,5], maternal smoking [4,5,7], parenting [8], stressful work [6], and being a female infant [3]. Furthermore, two prior studies reported that low birth weight was negatively associated with children's growth in their early childhood [9,10]. Since these risk factors probably continue during infants' growth, it is thus crucial to identify risk and protective factors in low-birth-weight children's health in early childhood.…”

Investigating the linkages between food insecurity, psychological distress, and poor sleep outcomes among U.S. college students

“…Research in human biology and the social sciences show strong links between both FI and poverty with a range of poor outcomes, such as: inadequate nutritional intake (Smith & Richards, 2008), adiposity (Moffat et al, 2005), flatter diurnal cortisol slopes (Heissel et al, 2017), and poor growth in infancy (Miller, 2022). These results broadly confirm that structural socioeconomic factors, such as poverty or housing instability, are crucial to determining disease outcomes and mortality risk.…”