Neuropsychology and malnutrition: a study with 7 to 10 years-old children in a poor community

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: to compare the neuropsychological profile of eutrophic, stunted and chronically malnourished children, and to analyse the role of socio-economic factors on the cognitive development. METHODS: seven to 10 year-old girls and boys from a poor community in São Paulo were evaluated: 27 eutrophyc, 31 stunted and 15 chronically malnourished. Neuropsychological evaluation involved cognitive functions not fully assessed in this population, such as working, declarative and non-declarative memories, attention and executive functions. Socio-economic indicators, maternal mental health and the children's behaviour at school were also evaluated. RESULTS: malnourished children had a lower score on the vocabulary test than the eutrophic and stunted groups (p s<0.05), performed worse in the visuospatial working memory task (p = 0.01), were more anxious than the stunted (p = 0.006), and despite having lower average birth weight than eutrophic children (p = 0.01), only two children as had prenatal malnutrition. Stunted children exhibited no impairment. No differences in socio-economic variables were found among groups. CONCLUSIONS: chronic malnutrition was associated to impairment of expressive speech, visual-spatial short-term memory and increased anxiety. No effects were observed in intellectual abilities, executive functions, verbal working memory, long-term memory, nor in visuoconstructive function. Preservation of the latter cognitive functions can be attributed to adequate environmental conditions and the lack of overall prenatal malnutrition.

Influence of domestic violence on the association between malnutrition and low cognitive development

“…Dos poucos estudos encontrados na literatura brasileira investigada, destaca-se aquele realizado por Miranda et al 8 , em que foram utilizados os mesmos testes psicométricos para avaliação do desempenho cognitivo (teste das matrizes progressivas de Raven). Os resultados de tal investigação 22,23 .…”

Comparison of Executive Functions in School Children Aged 7 to 12 Years in a State of Malnutrition Due to Thinness, Risk of Thinness and a Control Group of an Educational Institution of the Locality of Ciudad Bolívar- Bogotá, D.C.

“…The EF analysis and its relationship with nutritional status has been reported in the literature in different studies [31][32][33][34][35][36] and these show that children with nutritional problems have a lower neuropsychological performance in relation to normal weight controls in processes such as language comprehension, shortterm memory and visuospatial skills, thus leading to the conclusion that malnutrition significantly affects the development of higher cognitive processes in children during each developmental stage and is associated with a widespread cognitive impairment in this population.…”

Relationship between childhood underweight and dental crowding in deciduous teething

“…A desnutrição energético-proteica continua sendo a doença nutricional que mais causa mortes em todo o mun- Estudos apontam que a desnutrição infantil está associada a diferentes problemas de saúde [1][2][3][4][5] . Ao serem consideradas as repercussões da desnutrição na saúde bucal, há estudos que associam a desnutrição a uma maior prevalência de processos cariosos 6 , bem como com malformações dentá-rias 7 e lesões bucais em tecidos moles 6,8 .…”