Abstract
BackgroundWe estimated the associations between exposure to early life growth faltering at the population level and adult height and education outcomes in a sample of 21 low- and middle-income countries.MethodsWe conducted a synthetic panel analysis of 425 birth cohorts across 126 regions in 21 LMICs surveyed in the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) both as children and as adults. Data from historic (1987–1993) DHS survey rounds were used to compute average height-for-age z-scores at the province-birth-year level. Cohort measures of early life growth were then linked to adult height and educational attainment measures collected on individuals from the same cohorts in the 2006-2014 DHS survey rounds. The primary exposure of interest was population-level early life growth (region-birth year average HAZ) and growth faltering (region-birth year stunting prevalence). Multivariable linear regression models were used to estimate the associations between adult outcomes and population-level measures of early life linear growth.ResultsThe average cohort height-for-age z-score (HAZ) in childhood was − 1.53 [range: − 2.73, − 0.348]. In fully adjusted models, each unit increase in cohort childhood HAZ was associated with a 2.0 cm [95% CI: 1.09–2.9] increase in adult height, with larger associations for men than for women. Evidence for the association between early childhood height and adult educational attainment was found to be inconclusive (0.269, 95% CI: [− 0.68–1.22]).ConclusionsWhile early childhood linear growth at the cohort level appears to be highly predictive of adult height, the empirical association between early life growth and adult educational attainment seems weak and heterogeneous across countries.RegistrationThis study was registered on May 10, 2017 at the ISRCTN Registry (http://www.isrctn.com), registration number ISRCTN82438662.
Highlights
We estimated the associations between exposure to early life growth faltering at the population level and adult height and education outcomes in a sample of 21 low- and middle-income countries
Statistical methods We use multivariable linear regressions to estimate the associations between average height-for-age in childhood and adult height as well as to estimate the associations between average height-for-age in childhood and educational attainment in adulthood, the latter of which is measured by years of schooling
After dropping 22,225 observations due to missing income data, our final analytic sample is comprised of 104,359 adult records representing 425 birth cohorts surveyed between 2006 and 2014 in 21 Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC)
Summary
We estimated the associations between exposure to early life growth faltering at the population level and adult height and education outcomes in a sample of 21 low- and middle-income countries. A large number of studies examining the Chinese Famine of 1959–1961 have assessed the relationships between early-life exposure to severe undernutrition and adult height and stunting [12,13,14], mental health [15], educational attainment [13, 16], labor supply [12, 13, 16], and earnings [12] Estimations from these studies have found a wide range of results of the consequences of the famine, recorded to be the worst in human history [17], on adult outcomes
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