Nutritional status of preschool Senegalese children: long-term effects of early severe malnutrition

Abstract

The prevalence of malnutrition remains high in many developing countries. However, data relating to the long-term effects of severe malnutrition, specifically, serum levels of biochemical indicators of nutritional status, are still scarce in the literature. Hence the present study aimed to investigate the nutritional, biological and growth status of Senegalese preschool children previously hospitalised for severe malnutrition. The study involved twenty-four 7-year-old children who had suffered from marasmus 5 years earlier, twenty-four siblings living in the same household, and nineteen age-matched children living in the centre of Dakar. The siblings were of similar age to the post-marasmic children. Anthropometry, serum biochemical indicators of nutritional status, growth factors, and haematological and mineral parameters were measured. The prevalence of stunting and wasting was the same in the post-marasmic children as in the siblings. Body-fat and fat-free-mass (FFM) deficits in both groups were corroborated by abnormally low concentrations of transthyretin, osteocalcin, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein (IGFBP)-3. FFM was positively and significantly correlated with concentrations of IGF-1 and IGFBP-3. In the post-marasmic children, height for age was also correlated with IGF-1. Of the post-marasmic children, 53 % had Fe-deficiency anaemia, as did 35 % of the siblings and 29 % of the controls. No significant associations were found between the serum concentrations of Ca, Cu, K, Mg, Na, P, Se, Zn and growth retardation. At 5 years after nutritional rehabilitation, the post-marasmic children remained stunted with nutritional indices significantly lower than the control children. However, these children were doing as well as their siblings except for minor infections.

Long-Term Effect of Early Protein Malnutrition on Growth Curve, Hematological Parameters and Macrophage Function of Rats

“…In our experiments, although no difference was found either in the mean number of macrophages harvested from the peritoneal cavity or in the differential counts of peripheral blood leukocytes between NPD and LPD animals, the early undernutrition produced an alteration in red blood cells that was not completely restored even after a normal protein diet was supplied. Our findings are in agreement with those reported by Idohou-Dossou et al (34) who observed a decrease in hematological parameters of Senegalese preschoolers who had suffered from marasmus after birth. Impairment of bone marrow cell proliferation in animals and humans undernourished in pregnancy or after birth is well documented in the literature but there are few studies exploring the long-term effects.…”

Human IGF1 extends lifespan and enhances resistance to Plasmodium falciparum infection in the malaria vector Anopheles stephensi

“…These observations suggest that blood containing malaria parasites and reduced IGF1 levels may be more infective to mosquitoes than blood containing parasites with IGF1 levels in a range consistent with less severe infection. Given that low levels of IGF1 have also been linked with severe malnutrition (Idohou-Dossou et al, 2003;Stephenson et al, 2000;Gomes et al, 2007), our work suggests that poor nutritional status may compound the effects of IGF1 on malaria transmission, such that efforts to improve nutrition may have an added epidemiological benefit of maintaining higher IGF1 levels that reduce parasite transmission to the mosquito host.…”

Ameliorative effects of Cnidoscolus aconitifolius on anaemia and osmotic fragility induced by protein-energy malnutrition

“…Protein energy malnutrition (PEM) is a common condition in most developing countries especially in Africa including Nigeria (Nnakwe, 1995), Senegal (Idohou-Dossou et al, 2003) and in most of the war ravaged countries such as Somalia and Sudan in Africa and Thailand in Asia. It occurs as a result of lack of quality protein food, poverty, faulty weaning process, poor sanitary conditions and mal-*Corresponding author.…”