Linear growth of children in Papua New Guinea in relation to dietary, environmental and genetic factors

Smith, T.; Earland, Jane; Bhatia, Kuldeep; Heywood, Peter; Singleton, Nicola

doi:10.1080/03670244.1993.9991347

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Average (village) diets, de®ned as the proportion of families in a village reporting having eaten a food on the previous day, were therefore used as measures of family diet. These measures are better predictors of length-for-ag e scores in this data set than are individual family diet recalls (Smith et al 1993). Moreover they also represent dietary diOE erences in terms of regional patterns rather than diOE erence in diet due to family socio-economic status.…”

Section: Data Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Regional patterns of birthweights in Papua New Guinea in relation to diet, environment and socio-economic factors

Müller

Betuela

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2002

Annals of Human Biology

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Regional differences in mean birthweight in rural Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the importance of differences in family diet and maternal education and socio-economic status on such patterns were explored using birthweight data collected by the 1982/83 PNG National Nutrition Survey. A total of 6137 birthweight measurements from 85 PNG districts were available, representing 22% of all children included in the survey. The nature of possible selection biases are assessed and their implications discussed. Hierarchical Bayesian spatial models based on conditional autoregressive (CAR) priors were used to model spatial patterns in birthweights and their relation to different sets of covariates. Birthweights were found to exhibit striking geographical differences. Children from the central PNG highlands and from affluent lowland areas had the highest birthweights, while they were lowest in the (largely lowland) Sepik, Western, Madang and Milne Bay Provinces and in remote highland fringe areas. Maternal education, socio-economic status and diet were all important predictors, but only differences in family diet were correlated with the observed spatial patterns. The results of the present study highlight the importance of nutrition and socio-economic status in explaining differences in birthweights in PNG. Besides improving maternal health, interventions for improving birthweights in PNG should therefore aim at strengthening the economic base of rural populations and promote the cultivation and consumption of high quality foods.

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Section: Data Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Based on these zones, a complex cluster sample of 30 611 children under 5 years of age from 1096 rural villages was selected. A detailed description of the sampling frame is given in Smith, Earland, Bhatia et al (1993).…”

Section: Data Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional patterns of birthweights in Papua New Guinea in relation to diet, environment and socio-economic factors

Müller

Betuela

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2002

Annals of Human Biology

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“…These results are corroborated by other studies that have analyzed the nutritional status of bushmeat consuming populations. In traditional societies, bushmeat provides the greatest amount of daily calories (Smith et al 1993), is a crucial source of micronutrients (Golden et al 2011;Sarti et al 2015) and fat (Siren and Machoa 2008) and continues to play an important role in terms of dietary diversity for modern forest societies . In their literature review, King and Furgal (2014) provided strong arguments for the consumption of wild meats based on their high nutritional content, especially in contexts where the incidence of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and their associated adverse health outcomes are increasing (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smith et al (1993) analyzed the relationship between dietary composition and the height of children in Papua New Guinea and found that the consumption of bushmeat (together with fresh fish) had the strongest association with increased heights, and also contained the highest protein to energy ratios and high fat to energy ratios.…”

Section: Nutritional Content and Toxic Contamination Of Bushmeatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bushmeat and human health: Assessing the Evidence in tropical and sub-tropical forests

Vliet¹,

Moreno²,

Gómez³

et al. 2017

Ethnobio Conserv

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The importance of bushmeat as source of food and medicine for forest peoples calls for an appropriate benefit/risk analysis in terms of human health. In this systematic review, we compiled information on the linkages between bushmeat and health, with a particular focus on the nutritional content, the zoo-therapeutic uses and the zoonotic pool of bushmeat species in tropical and sub-tropical forest regions. Despite the scarcity of data on the nutritional content of most common bushmeat species, the available studies demonstrate that bushmeat is an important source of fats, micro and macro-nutrients and has a diversity of medicinal uses. However, bushmeat may have detrimental health impacts where hunting, transportation, handling and cooking practices do not follow food safety practices. There is evidence that some bushmeat carcasses may be contaminated by toxic metals or by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Moreover, several pathogens carried by bushmeat are found to be zoonotic and potentially transmissible to humans through consumption or through exposure to body fluids and feces. We stress the need for more in-depth studies on the complex links between bushmeat and human health. The development of innovative handling, conservation and cooking practices, adapted to each socio-cultural context, should help reduce the negative impacts of bushmeat consumption on human health.

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“…Nonetheless, the possibility of historical change in growth patterns even there needs consideration, at least for the East Mianmin, as the largest sample with the greatest time depth: we intend to address this issue in a future analysis. It is also noteworthy that, despite PNG's genetic diversity, an analysis of a national sample has found dietary factors to be more important in accounting for geographical variation in children's stature growth (Smith, Earland, Bhatia, Heywood and Singleton 1993).…”

Section: Group Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal weight growth patterns in the highland fringes of West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea: a comparison of three groups

Attenborough

Porteous

Gardner

1995

Annals of Human Biology

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Longitudinal weight growth data from three groups in West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, are compared. A form of analysis based on the four-parameter Jenss curve is adopted, to allow intelligible comparisons of parameter means despite irregular weighing schedules for individual children. Although many weighing records include notes of a child's ill-health (e.g. malaria), omission of these weighings does not have a large effect on the results. Some significant sex differences were found, but do not appear to be importantly confounded with group differences. Of the three groups compared, the East Mianmin live at moderate altitude, the Imnai live at low altitude, and the West Mianmin are a migrant group from moderate to low altitude. In principle the analysis could have shown the groups to be differentiated by altitude of current residence (suggesting the influence of environmental factors), by altitude of ancestral residence (suggesting the influence of genetic and/or cultural factors) or by some interaction of causal factors. Findings on most parameters suggest interaction. Neither moderate nor low-altitude conditions appear consistently more favourable to rapid growth; it is suggested that the advantage of a more favourable disease environment at moderate altitude may be at least partially offset by a nutritional disadvantage. The effect of environmental conditions may also be non-uniform, especially for young infants, since infants of the migrant group, the West Mianmin, are born heaviest but grow more slowly in the early months than infants of either non-migrant group.

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Linear growth of children in Papua New Guinea in relation to dietary, environmental and genetic factors

Cited by 24 publications

References 31 publications

Regional patterns of birthweights in Papua New Guinea in relation to diet, environment and socio-economic factors

Regional patterns of birthweights in Papua New Guinea in relation to diet, environment and socio-economic factors

Bushmeat and human health: Assessing the Evidence in tropical and sub-tropical forests

Longitudinal weight growth patterns in the highland fringes of West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea: a comparison of three groups

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