TY - JOUR
T1 - Growth trajectories from conception through middle childhood and cognitive achievement at age 8 years
T2 - Evidence from four low- and middle-income countries
AU - Georgiadis, Andreas
AU - Benny, Liza
AU - Crookston, Benjamin T.
AU - Duc, Le Thuc
AU - Hermida, Priscila
AU - Mani, Subha
AU - Woldehanna, Tassew
AU - Stein, Aryeh D.
AU - Behrman, Jere R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - Child chronic malnutrition is endemic in low- and middle-income countries and deleterious for child development. Studies investigating the relationship between nutrition at different periods of childhood, as measured by growth in these periods (growth trajectories), and cognitive development have produced mixed evidence. Although an explanation of this has been that different studies use different approaches to model growth trajectories, the differences across approaches are not well understood. Furthermore, little is known about the pathways linking growth trajectories and cognitive achievement. In this paper, we develop and estimate a general path model of the relationship between growth trajectories and cognitive achievement using data on four cohorts from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. The model is used to: (a) compare two of the most common approaches to modelling growth trajectories in the literature, namely the lifecourse plot and the conditional body size model, and (b) investigate the potential channels via which the association between growth in each period and cognitive achievement manifests. We show that the two approaches are expected to produce systematically different results that have distinct interpretations. Results suggest that growth from conception through age 1 year, between age 1 and 5 years, and between 5 and 8 years, are each positively and significantly associated with cognitive achievement at age 8 years and that this may be partly explained by the fact that faster-growing children start school earlier. We also find that a significant share of the association between early growth and later cognitive achievement is mediated through growth in interim periods.
AB - Child chronic malnutrition is endemic in low- and middle-income countries and deleterious for child development. Studies investigating the relationship between nutrition at different periods of childhood, as measured by growth in these periods (growth trajectories), and cognitive development have produced mixed evidence. Although an explanation of this has been that different studies use different approaches to model growth trajectories, the differences across approaches are not well understood. Furthermore, little is known about the pathways linking growth trajectories and cognitive achievement. In this paper, we develop and estimate a general path model of the relationship between growth trajectories and cognitive achievement using data on four cohorts from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam. The model is used to: (a) compare two of the most common approaches to modelling growth trajectories in the literature, namely the lifecourse plot and the conditional body size model, and (b) investigate the potential channels via which the association between growth in each period and cognitive achievement manifests. We show that the two approaches are expected to produce systematically different results that have distinct interpretations. Results suggest that growth from conception through age 1 year, between age 1 and 5 years, and between 5 and 8 years, are each positively and significantly associated with cognitive achievement at age 8 years and that this may be partly explained by the fact that faster-growing children start school earlier. We also find that a significant share of the association between early growth and later cognitive achievement is mediated through growth in interim periods.
KW - Cognitive achievement
KW - Cohort study
KW - Ethiopia
KW - India
KW - Nutrition
KW - Path analysis
KW - Peru
KW - Vietnam
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84959440233&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.01.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.01.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84959440233
SN - 2352-8273
VL - 2
SP - 43
EP - 54
JO - SSM - Population Health
JF - SSM - Population Health
ER -