Adequate nutrition is fundamental to the development of a child's full potential. However, the extent to which malnutrition affects developmental and cognitive outcomes in the midst of co-occurring risk factors remains largely understudied. We sought to establish if the effects of nutritional status varied according to diverse background characteristics as well as to compare the relative strength of the effects of poor nutritional status on language skills, motor abilities, and cognitive functioning at school age. This cross-sectional study was conducted among school-age boys and girls resident in Kilifi District in Kenya. We hypothesized that the effects of area of residence, school attendance, household wealth, age and gender on child outcomes are experienced directly and indirectly through child nutritional status. The use of structural equation modeling (SEM) allowed the disaggregation of the total effect of the explanatory variables into direct effects (effects that go directly from one variable to another) and indirect effects. Each of the models tested for the four child outcomes had a good fit. However, the effects on verbal memory apart from being weaker than for the other outcomes, were not mediated through nutritional status. School attendance was the most influential predictor of nutritional status and child outcomes. The estimated models demonstrated the continued importance of child nutritional status at school-age.Keywords: nutritional status, school-age children, structural equation modeling, direct and indirect effects, co-occurring risk factors, cognitive outcomes
INTRODUCTIONWhile the literature provides evidence that the negative effects of early malnutrition persist to school-age (Pollitt et al., 1996), there are several significant knowledge gaps. First, despite evidence that the impact of nutrition varies across different neurocognitive domains, there have been few studies investigating this area, especially in middle childhood. And yet at school age, children are exposed to more differential experiences and acquire more sophisticated abilities across various cognitive domains (Fischer and Bullock, 1984). Second, there is a complex inter-related relationship between poverty, nutritional status and neurocognitive outcomes. Not only do the constraints of low income in deprived settings create practical barriers to good nutrition; additional socio-environmental factors reinforce the effects of this deprivation (Engle and Black, 2008). Poor nutritional status at this age may have long-term negative consequences and restrict development of a child's full potential. This is therefore a critical period for investigating the link between malnutrition and developmental outcomes, especially within a multiple risk context.In many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, linear growth retardation, or stunting, a manifestation of chronic protein-energy malnutrition (PEM), is highly prevalent, with rates as high as 38% (de Onis et al., 2012). Various individual and environmental variabl...