Maternal education inequalities in height growth rates in early childhood: 2004 Pelotas birth cohort study

Matijasevich, Alícia; Howe, Laura D; Tilling, Kate; Santos, Iná S.; Barros, Aluísio J D; Lawlor, Debbie A.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-3016.2011.01251.x

Cited by 29 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Similar findings on the importance of maternal education, particularly in early life, have been described in a longitudinal study in Brazil. Matijasevich et al showed that maternal education was positively associated with differences in growth rates in height/length < 2.5 years of age (though not from 3 to 12 months) and that there was a lack of association later in childhood up to 4 years (Matijasevich et al, ). Busert et al () did not find an association with height for age difference in a mountainous region of Nepal; however, childhood stunting has been shown to be more common when mothers have no education than when they complete school or higher education in Nepal (Ministry of Health and Population [Nepal] et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic determinants of growth in a longitudinal study in Nepal

Devakumar¹,

Kular²,

Shrestha

et al. 2017

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with childhood anthropometry, but little is known about how it is associated with tissue growth and body composition. To investigate this, we looked at components of SES at birth with growth in early and mid‐childhood, and body composition in a longitudinal study in Nepal. The exposure variables (material assets, land ownership, and maternal education) were quantified from questionnaire data before birth. Anthropometry data at birth, 2.5 and 8.5 years, were normalized using WHO reference ranges and conditional growth calculated. Associations with child growth and body composition were explored using multiple regression analysis. Complete anthropometry data were available for 793 children. There was a positive association between SES and height‐for‐age and weight‐for‐age, and a reduction in odds of stunting and underweight for each increase in rank of SES variable. Associations tended to be significant when moving from the lower to the upper asset score, from none to secondary education, and no land to >30 dhur (~500 m2). The strongest associations were for maternal secondary education, showing an increase of 0.6–0.7 z scores in height‐for‐age and weight‐for‐age at 2.5 and 8.5 years and 0.3 kg/m2 in fat and lean mass compared to no education. There was a positive association with conditional growth in the highest asset score group and secondary maternal education, and generally no association with land ownership. Our results show that SES at birth is important for the growth of children, with a greater association with fat mass. The greatest influence was maternal secondary education.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioeconomic determinants of growth in a longitudinal study in Nepal

Devakumar¹,

Kular²,

Shrestha

et al. 2017

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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“…Associations between stunting and birth weight (15, 44) or maternal height (3, 50) have also been identified in other studies. Disparities in linear infant growth can also be explained by maternal education (13, 43, 51). Finally, sex differences in stunting have been well described: 35.7% of boys and 28.3% of girls <5 y of age in Zimbabwe were stunted in 2010–2011 (52), which are typical of findings from several countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (53, 54).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The outcome was defined as a nominal variable of LAZ trajectory-group membership and covariates were maternal education, age, midupper arm circumference, and height and infant sex, birth weight, length, and gestational age on the basis of the documented associations of these variables with linear infant growth (5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 40–45). To minimize the impact of collinearity on statistical inference, covariates were centered before model fitting.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linear growth trajectories in Zimbabwean infants

Gough

Moodie

Prendergast

et al. 2016

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

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Background: Undernutrition in early life underlies 45% of child deaths globally. Stunting malnutrition (suboptimal linear growth) also has long-term negative effects on childhood development. Linear growth deficits accrue in the first 1000 d of life. Understanding the patterns and timing of linear growth faltering or recovery during this period is critical to inform interventions to improve infant nutritional status.Objective: We aimed to identify the pattern and determinants of linear growth trajectories from birth through 24 mo of age in a cohort of Zimbabwean infants.Design: We performed a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from a subset of 3338 HIV-unexposed infants in the Zimbabwe Vitamin A for Mothers and Babies trial. We used k-means clustering for longitudinal data to identify linear growth trajectories and multinomial logistic regression to identify covariates that were associated with each trajectory group.Results: For the entire population, the mean length-for-age z score declined from −0.6 to −1.4 between birth and 24 mo of age. Within the population, 4 growth patterns were identified that were each characterized by worsening linear growth restriction but varied in the timing and severity of growth declines. In our multivariable model, 1-U increments in maternal height and education and infant birth weight and length were associated with greater relative odds of membership in the least–growth restricted groups (A and B) and reduced odds of membership in the more–growth restricted groups (C and D). Male infant sex was associated with reduced odds of membership in groups A and B but with increased odds of membership in groups C and D.Conclusion: In this population, all children were experiencing growth restriction but differences in magnitude were influenced by maternal height and education and infant sex, birth weight, and birth length, which suggest that key determinants of linear growth may already be established by the time of birth. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00198718.

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“…Like Howe et al ,9 he suggested that height advantage may begin before school entry. In contrast, analyses of the Pelotas birth cohort from Brazil17 suggested widening inequalities in children’s length/height from birth to 4 years of age, with the magnitude of the deficit increasing from 0.2 of an SD unit at birth, to 0.7 of an SD unit at 4 years of age. Similarly, a Belarussian study found that children born to mothers with higher levels of education were longer at birth and grew faster than children of less educated mothers 18…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%