The role of the home environment in neurocognitive development of children living in extreme poverty and with frequent illnesses: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The home environment is reported to contribute significantly to children’s developing cognitive skills. However, it is not yet evident whether this role prevails in the context of extreme poverty and frequent ill-health. We therefore investigated the role of the home environment in Ugandan children taking into account the frequent infections and extreme poverty in which they lived. Methods: Cognitive abilities of 163 5-year-old children were assessed. Home environments of these children, their health status and family socioeconomic status (SES) were assessed respectively using the EC-HOME, anthropometry and illnesses, and traditional SES measures. Structural equation analyses compared five models on the influence of the home environment, SES, and child health on the cognitive scores. Results: The model in which the home environment mediates the combined influence of SES and child health on cognitive performance showed a particularly good fit to the data compared with the four alternative models, i.e. those in which the HOME, SES and health independently influence cognitive performance. Conclusions: Home environments providing cognitive stimulation can enable children to overcome effects of major adverse life experiences on cognitive development.

Impact of Home Parenting Environment on Cognitive and Psychomotor Development in Children Under 5 Years Old: A Meta-Analysis

“…A total of 983 articles were obtained after initial screening, including 336 in English and 647 in Chinese. After excluding duplicate articles, studies of obviously irrelevant topics, studies of inconsistent outcome indicators, or studies without extractable effect size, 12 articles (19,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42) were finally included in the meta-analysis. Among them, there were 11 articles in English (19,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(40)(41)(42) and one article in Chinese (39).…”

“…After excluding duplicate articles, studies of obviously irrelevant topics, studies of inconsistent outcome indicators, or studies without extractable effect size, 12 articles (19,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42) were finally included in the meta-analysis. Among them, there were 11 articles in English (19,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(40)(41)(42) and one article in Chinese (39). One article (32) divided the subjects into the 0-17-month-old group and the 18-30 month old group, and investigated the relationship between the early development of children and home parenting environment.…”

Improving the quality of child-care centres through supportive assessment and ‘communities of practice’ in informal settlements in Nairobi: protocol of a feasibility study

“…The role of a stimulating environment is increasingly becoming recognised and emphasised. 18 A well-facilitated child-care centre that provides opportunities for learning and play, good feeding and access to healthcare has the potential to nurture and optimise child development. 19–22 On the other hand, child-care centres with limited cognitive stimulation are likely to hold back children’s development.…”

Cognitive function in toddlers with congenital heart disease: The impact of a stimulating home environment

“…Extensive research has characterized the relationship between stimulating home environment and improved cognition in children without congenital heart disease, including in low‐ and middle‐income countries, even when controlling for socioeconomic factors (Aboud et al, 2013; Nguyen et al, 2018; Obradović et al, 2016; Pitchik et al, 2018). There is some evidence that home environment can enable children to overcome the effects of socioeconomic status and ill health on early cognitive development (Nampijja et al, 2018; Ronfani et al, 2015). In children born prematurely or with low birthweight, better home environment has been associated with improved cognitive outcome (Bradley et al, 1994; Lynch & Gibbs, 2017; Treyvaud et al, 2012; Wolke et al, 2013) and home environment mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and cognitive development (Linver et al, 2002).…”