Assessment of Neurodevelopment, Nutrition, and Inflammation From Fetal Life to Adolescence in Low-Resource Settings

Abstract

Efforts to improve child neurodevelopment are critical to health, equity, and sustainable development, particularly in low-resource settings in the United States and globally. The colliding epidemics of food insecurity, infectious diseases, and noncommunicable diseases interact and impact neurodevelopment. Understanding the complex relationships between nutrition, inflammation, and neurodevelopment can inform clinical and public health interventions to improve outcomes. This article reviews key definitions, tools, and considerations for the assessment of nutrition, inflammation, and child neurodevelopment. The effectiveness of existing assessment tools to reflect status and biology, particularly in relation to each other, and to predict long-term changes in health is examined. The aim of this review is to present the extant evidence, identify critical research gaps, and suggest a research agenda for future longitudinal and intervention studies to address the assessment of nutrition, inflammation, and child neurodevelopment, particularly in lowresource settings. Despite research gaps, there is a strong relationship between nutrition, inflammation, environmental factors, and child neurodevelopment, which emphasizes the need to evaluate targeted, early interventions to improve long-term health and well-being.

Measuring executive function skills in young children in Kenya: Associations with school readiness

“…The ability to reliably and validly measure multiple aspects of neurodevelopment, including EF skills, in resource‐limited settings is a global research priority (Semrud‐Clikeman et al, ; Suchdev et al, ). Consistent with other recent work (e.g.…”

Establishing a conceptual framework of the impact of placental malaria on infant neurodevelopment

“…Lastly, Suchdev et al (2017) suggest a bidirectional interaction between nutrition and inflammation, wherein inflammation negatively impacts nutritional status and poor nutrition negatively impacts immune function (Suchdev et al, 2017). Potentially, reduced immune function due to malnutrition may increase the risk of PM.…”

Metabolomics, stunting and neurodevelopment

“…The research by Moreau et al made an important contribution to our understanding of the association between growth, metabolism and neurocognitive outcomes. However, in order to develop targeted interventions longitudinal research is needed that focuses on the complex relationship between nutrition, inflammation and neurodevelopment outcomes [5]. This research should also include more functional and structural outcomes of brain development in order to allow for a better understanding how specific aspects of nutrition, metabolomics and inflammation impact neurodevelopment [10].…”

“…However how specifically stunting influences child neurodevelopment remains unknown. Growing evidence demonstrates the independent and interrelated roles of both malnutrition and inflammation on neurodevelopment [5]. Importantly, current interventions aimed at preventing stunting (e.g.…”