Background: Early life growth failure and resulting cognitive deficits are often assumed to be very difficult to reverse after infancy.Objective: We used data from Young Lives, which is an observational cohort of 8062 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, to determine whether changes in growth after infancy are associated with schooling and cognitive achievement at age 8 y.Design: We represented the growth by height-for-age z score at 1 y [HAZ(1)] and height-for-age z score at 8 y that was not predicted by the HAZ(1). We also characterized growth as recovered (stunted at age 1 y and not at age 8 y), faltered (not stunted at age 1 y and stunted at age 8 y), persistently stunted (stunted at ages 1 and 8 y), or never stunted (not stunted at ages 1 and 8 y). Outcome measures were assessed at age 8 y.Results: The HAZ(1) was inversely associated with overage for grade and positively associated with mathematics achievement, reading comprehension, and receptive vocabulary. Unpredicted growth from 1 to 8 y of age was also inversely associated with overage for grade (OR range across countries: 0.80–0.84) and positively associated with mathematics achievement (effect-size range: 0.05–0.10), reading comprehension (0.02–0.10), and receptive vocabulary (0.04–0.08). Children who recovered in linear growth had better outcomes than did children who were persistently stunted but were not generally different from children who experienced growth faltering.Conclusions: Improvements in child growth after early faltering might have significant benefits on schooling and cognitive achievement. Hence, although early interventions remain critical, interventions to improve the nutrition of preprimary and early primary school–age children also merit consideration.

BackgroundThis study’s purpose was to understand associations between water, sanitation, and child growth.MethodsWe estimated stunting (height-for-age Z score <−2 SD) and thinness (BMI-Z <−2 SD) risk ratios using data from 7,715 Ethiopian, Indian, Peruvian, and Vietnamese children from the Young Lives study. ResultsIn unadjusted models, household access to improved water and toilets was often associated with reduced stunting risk. After adjusting for child, household, parent, and community variables, access to improved water was usually not associated with stunting nor thinness except in Ethiopia where access to improved water was associated with reduced stunting and thinness at 1y and 5y. In contrast, in both unadjusted and adjusted models, stunting at 1y was less common among children with good toilet access than among those without access and this difference persisted when children were 5y and 8y. For example, in adjusted estimates, Vietnamese 5y olds with access to improved toilets had relative stunting risk at 8y 0.62-0.68 that of 5y olds with no access to improved toilets. Water and toilets were rarely associated with thinness.ConclusionsResults from our study indicate that access to improved sanitation is more frequently associated with reduced stunting risk than access to improved water. However, additional studies are needed before drawing definitive conclusions about the impact of toilets relative to water. This study is the first to our knowledge to demonstrate the robust and persistent importance of access to improved toilets in infancy, not only during the first year but continuing into childhood. Additional longitudinal investigations are needed to determine concurrent and long-term associations of WASH with stunting and thinness.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4033-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective Extend analyses of maternal mental health and infant growth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to children through age eight and broaden analyses to cognitive and psychosocial outcomes. Design Community-based longitudinal cohort study in four LMICs (Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam). Surveys and anthropometric assessments were carried out when the children were approximately ages one, five and eight years. Risk of maternal common mental disorders (rCMD) was assessed with the SRQ-20 (score ≥8). Setting Rural and urban as well as middle and poor income communities. Participants 7,722 mothers and their children. Main outcome measures Child stunting and underweight (Z score <-2 of height and weight for age), and < 20th percentile for: cognitive development (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), and the psychosocial outcomes self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results A high rate of rCMD, stunting, and underweight was seen in the cohorts. After adjusting for confounders significant associations were found between maternal rCMD and growth variables in the first year of life with persistence to age eight in India and Vietnam but not in the other countries. India and Vietnam also showed significant associations between rCMD and lower cognitive development. After adjustment, rCMD was associated with low life satisfaction in Ethiopia but not in the other cohorts. Conclusions Associations of maternal rCMD in the first year of life with child outcomes varied across the study cohorts. and in some cases persisted across the first eight years of life of the child and included growth, cognitive development and psychosocial domains.

Recent research has demonstrated some growth recovery among children stunted in infancy. Less is known about key age ranges for such growth recovery, and what factors are correlates with this growth. This study characterized child growth up to age 1 year, and from ages 1 to 5 and 5 to 8 years controlling for initial height-for-age z-score (HAZ), and identified key distal household and community factors associated with these growth measures using longitudinal data on 7,266 children in the Young Lives (YL) study in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. HAZ at about age 1 year and age in months predicted much of the variation in HAZ at age 5 years, but 40 to 71% was not predicted. Similarly, HAZ at age 5 years and age in months did not predict 26 to 47% of variation in HAZ at 8 years. Multiple regression analysis suggests that parental schooling, consumption, and mothers’ height are key correlates of HAZ at about age 1 and also are associated with unpredicted change in HAZ from ages 1 to 5 and 5 to 8 years, given initial HAZ. These results underline the importance of a child’s starting point in infancy in determining his or her growth, point to key distal household and community factors that may determine early growth in early life and subsequent growth recovery and growth failure, and indicate that these factors vary some by country, urban/rural designation, and child sex.

Autistic adults in need of long-term services and supports spend months on waiting lists before receiving such services through Medicaid. Data from a state-wide survey of adults and their caregivers on a waiting list for autism waivers suggest that the majority have unmet needs for functional skills services (63.6%), employment or vocation services (62.1%), and mental and behavioral health services (52.8%). Almost a third require case management services (28.3%). Predictors of greater service need are African American race and the number of physical and behavioral health diagnoses. Predictors of greater service receipt were employment status, housing type, and school enrollment; there was lower service receipt for African American race, Hispanic ethnicity, over age 21 years, and college completion. Keywords Adults with autism • Medicaid • Waiting list • Unmet needsAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a life-long, neuro-developmental disorder shaping the lives of not just children, but hundreds of thousands of adults and their families in the United States (Jariwala-Parikh et al. 2019). While children diagnosed with ASD may be eligible for services through educational institutions and other public and private programs (Thomas et al. 2012;Turnbull et al. 2002), adults may find fewer supports available to support their functional capacity and wellbeing without access to supports provided in educational institutions. Vocational rehabilitation services and home-and community-based services (HCBS) may be available to many through state and federal programs (Lawer et al. 2009), but many adults with ASD may face barriers to accessing these services and have significant unmet service needs (Raymaker et al. 2017;Turcotte et al. 2016;Vogan et al. 2017).Less than 30 years ago, children and adults with ASD were often cared for in an institutional or segregated setting.

Academic and policy literatures on intergenerational transmissions of poverty and inequality suggest that improving schooling attainment and income for parents in poor households will lessen poverty and inequality in their children's generation through increased human capital accumulated by their children. However, magnitudes of such effects are unknown. We use data on children born in the 21st century in four developing countries to simulate how changes in parents’ schooling attainment and consumption would affect poverty and inequality in both the parent's and their children's generations. We find that increasing minimum schooling or income substantially reduces poverty and inequality in the parent's generation, but does not carry over to reducing poverty and inequality substantially in the children's generation. Therefore, while reductions in poverty and inequality in the parents’ generation are desirable in themselves to improve welfare among current adults, they are not likely to have large impacts in reducing poverty and particularly in reducing inequality in human capital in the next generation.

Micronutrient powders (MNP) have the potential to increase micronutrient intake, yet documentation of implementation lessons remains a gap. This paper presents results of a pilot in Uganda comparing community‐ and facility‐based delivery of MNP and documenting experiences of caregivers and distributors. The pilot's mixed method evaluation included a cross‐sectional endline survey, monthly household visits, and midline and endline interviews. Primary outcomes were ever‐covered (received ≥1 MNP packet), repeat‐coverage (received ≥2 MNP packets), and adherence (consumed no more than 1 MNP sachet per day, consumed MNP with food, and consumed MNP 3+ days in past week). An adjusted Wald chi‐square test compared differences in programme outcomes between arms, and logit regression identified predictors to adherence. Key informant interviews were coded thematically. Most programme outcomes in the endline survey were statistically significantly higher in the community arm, although in both arms, adherence was lower than other outcomes (adherence 31.4% in facility vs. 58.3% in community arm). Counselling, receipt of communication materials, perceived positive effects, MNP knowledge, and child liking MNP were consistent predictors of adherence in both arms. Qualitative findings corroborated survey results, revealing that social encouragement and advocacy facilitated use and that forgetting to give MNP was a barrier. Facility arm caregivers also cited distance, time, and transportation cost as barriers. Distributors had positive experiences with training and supervision but experienced increased workloads in both arms. MNP programme design is context‐specific but could benefit from strengthened community sensitization, continued and more effective counselling for caregivers, and increased support for distributors.

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