Morbidity and growth performance of infants in Madura, Indonesia

Abstract

Between January 1987 and July 1988, all children born in two villages on the island of Madura, Indonesia were visited weekly by a field worker trained to interview mothers on disease symptoms. The maximum recall period was 1 week. All infants were measured (weight and height) at monthly intervals. Information on growth and morbidity is analysed for infants from birth until the age of 11 months. Morbidity, defined as acute respiratory tract infection (ARI), diarrhoea, fever and other diseases, is analysed over 4-week periods and related to growth performance. In total, there are 1373 4-week reporting periods with morbidity information from birth to the age of 12 months. Of all the diseases recorded (1021), 47% were ARI, 13% diarrhoea, 14% fever and 26% other diseases. The average (SD) duration of diarrhoea was 7 (11) days, ARI 14 (9) days, fever 6 (4) days and 16 (10) days for other diseases. The most striking results in this analysis are: (i) the lack of a relationship between morbidity and growth (either linear or weight) during the 1st 6 months of life; (ii) the existence of a relationship between illness and weight increment for which only ARI showed significant influence for infants of 6 months and more; (iii) the lack of a relationship between morbidity and linear growth performance at all ages; and (iv) the fact that no cumulative effect of disease on growth performance was found to explain the observations.

Predictors of growth from 1 to 18 months among breast-fed Ghanaian infants

“…During this period, diarrhea was negatively associated with weight velocity but not with length velocity. This is consistent with results reported in some studies (Adair et al, 1993;Bittencourt et al, 1993;Rowland & Rowland, 1988), but differs from results of other studies in Honduras and Indonesia, where no relationship was demonstrated between diarrhea and growth of breast-fed infants in the ®rst 6 months (Cohen et al, 1995;Kolsteren et al, 1997). Differences in exposure to environmental pathogens may explain the inconsistencies in the various studies.…”

“…Prevalence of diarrhea and fever were negatively related to growth during the ®rst year of life. No signi®cant relationship could be demonstrated between respiratory illness and growth among these infants, even though this association has been reported by other investigators (Kolsteren et al, 1997;Ricci & Becker, 1996;Rowland & Rowland, 1988). Most studies, including ours, have not distinguished between upper vs lower respiratory illness.…”

“…The second critical period for growth faltering is during the weaning period which generally coincides with the second 6 months of life. The relatively poor quality of complementary foods (Black et al, 1982;Dickin et al, 1990) and high rates of infection (Kolsteren et al, 1997;Mata et al, 1972;Moy et al, 1994) are some factors implicated in growth faltering during this period. Understanding the factors that affect growth during these critical periods is essential for determining appropriate intervention strategies to address the problem.…”

Environmental Temperature and Human Growth in Early Life

“…Furthermore, despite the close relationship between diarrhoea prevalence and growth faltering in this population reported in the 1970s (Rowland et al, 1977), a subsequent reduction in the incidence of diarrhoea was not associated with improved growth (Poskitt et al, 1999). Similar "ndings have been reported in other populations (Briend et al, 1989;Kolsteren et al, 1997).…”

Factors associated with physical growth of children during the first two years of life in rural and urban areas of Vietnam

“…Also there was no evidence of causal effects of breastfeeding on body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure in a study aimed to understand the confounding structure of breastfeeding by socio-economic position in the British Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children or the Brazilian Pelotas 1993 cohorts study [18]. Several studies have shown negative associations between the number of infectious disease episodes during infancy mainly pneumonia, diarrhoea and physical growth of the child [19-22]. …”