Effect of egg consumption on early childhood development: Evidence from Un Oeuf study.

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that inclusion of eggs in young children's diet can help meet nutritional requirements associated with cognitive development. This study aims to investigate the effect of egg consumption on Early Childhood Development (ECD) using Ages and Stages Questionnaire-3(ASQ-3) in Burkina Faso. The study presented here uses data collected during a follow-up of the Un Oeuf-a 3 arm clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT), conducted roughly four months after the end of the RCT. This research was conducted in 18 rural villages within the Kaya Department of the Sanmatenga Province in Burkina Faso. Participants of this study include a total of 244 children aged between 18-33 months, with 78 children in the full intervention group, 83 in the partial group, and 83 in the control group. Results show that children with consistent egg consumption (in all months) had a lower odd of falling below the cut-off scores in gross motor (OR = 0.13, p = 0.02) and personal social skills (OR = 0.34, p = 0.05). And a dose response was established; for each additional egg/week, a 1.9% increase in scores for problem-solving skills was observed. Findings from this study contribute to a growing body of evidence that increasing egg consumption among children in LMICs can improve growth and development. The study highlights the need for additional research in LMICs to better understand the multifactorial relationship between diet and childhood development.