Deep data science to prevent and treat growth faltering in Maya children

Abstract The Maya people are descended from the indigenous inhabitants of southern Mexico, Guatemala and adjacent regions of Central America. In Guatemala, 50% of infants and children are stunted (very low height-for-age), and some rural Maya regions have >70% children stunted. A large, longitudinal, intergenerational database was created to (1) provide deep data to prevent and treat somatic growth faltering and impaired neurocognitive development, (2) detect key dependencies and predictive relations between highly complex, time-varying, and interacting biological and cultural variables and (3) identify targeted multifactorial intervention strategies for field testing and validation. Contributions to this database included data from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala Longitudinal Study of Child and Adolescent Development, child growth and intergenerational studies among the Maya in Mexico and studies about Maya migrants in the United States.

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Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) factors associated with growth between birth and 1 year of age in children in Soweto, South Africa: results from the Soweto Baby WASH study

Journal of Water and Health ◽

10.2166/wh.2020.085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 798-819

Author(s):

D. J. Momberg ◽

L. E. Voth-Gaeddert ◽

B. C. Ngandu ◽

L. Richter ◽

J. May ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Transmission ◽

A Priori ◽

Child Growth ◽

Hierarchical Regression ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Water Index ◽

Growth Faltering ◽

Sanitation And Hygiene ◽

Height For Age ◽

Weight For Age

Abstract Interventions to reduce undernutrition and improve child growth have incorporated improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) as part of disease transmission prevention strategies. Knowledge gaps still exist, namely, when and which WASH factors are determinants for growth faltering, and when WASH interventions are most effective at improving growth. This study drew cross-sectional data from a longitudinal cohort study and used hierarchical regression analyses to assess associations between WASH factors: water index, sanitation, hygiene index, and growth: height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ) at 1, 6, and 12 months postpartum among infants a priori born healthy in Soweto, Johannesburg. Household access to sanitation facilities that were not safely managed was associated with a decrease in HAZ scores at 1 month (β = −2.24) and 6 months (β = −0.96); a decrease in WAZ at 1 month (β = −1.21), 6 months (β = −1.57), and 12 months (β = −1.92); and finally, with WHZ scores at 12 months (β = −1.94). Counterintuitively, poorer scores on the hygiene index were associated with an increase at 1 month for both HAZ (β = 0.53) and WAZ (β = 0.44). Provision of safely managed sanitation at household and community levels may be required before improvements in growth-related outcomes are obtained.

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Big Data Driven Clinical Informatics & Surveillance (BDD_CIS) – A Multimodal Database Focused Clinical, Community, and Multi-Omics Surveillance Plan for COVID-19: A study Protocol (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.24504 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Bankole Olatosi ◽

Jiajia Zhang ◽

Sharon Weissman ◽

Zhenlong Li ◽

Jianjun Hu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Big Data ◽

South Carolina ◽

Data Science ◽

Age Groups ◽

The Elderly ◽

The United States ◽

Data Sources ◽

Patient Registries ◽

Multiple Partner ◽

Multimodal Data

BACKGROUND The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) remains a serious global pandemic. Currently, all age groups are at risk for infection but the elderly and persons with underlying health conditions are at higher risk of severe complications. In the United States (US), the pandemic curve is rapidly changing with over 6,786,352 cases and 199,024 deaths reported. South Carolina (SC) as of 9/21/2020 reported 138,624 cases and 3,212 deaths across the state. OBJECTIVE The growing availability of COVID-19 data provides a basis for deploying Big Data science to leverage multitudinal and multimodal data sources for incremental learning. Doing this requires the acquisition and collation of multiple data sources at the individual and county level. METHODS The population for the comprehensive database comes from statewide COVID-19 testing surveillance data (March 2020- till present) for all SC COVID-19 patients (N≈140,000). This project will 1) connect multiple partner data sources for prediction and intelligence gathering, 2) build a REDCap database that links de-identified multitudinal and multimodal data sources useful for machine learning and deep learning algorithms to enable further studies. Additional data will include hospital based COVID-19 patient registries, Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) data, data from the office of Revenue and Fiscal Affairs (RFA), and Area Health Resource Files (AHRF). RESULTS The project was funded as of June 2020 by the National Institutes for Health. CONCLUSIONS The development of such a linked and integrated database will allow for the identification of important predictors of short- and long-term clinical outcomes for SC COVID-19 patients using data science.

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Growth of Immigrant Children in the Newcomer Schools of San Francisco

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.80.6.861 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 80 (6) ◽

pp. 861-868

Author(s):

Laurie B. Schumacher ◽

I. Guy Pawson ◽

Norman Kretchmer

Keyword(s):

San Francisco ◽

The United States ◽

Refugee Children ◽

White Children ◽

School Aged Children ◽

Newcomer Schools ◽

Nutritional Environment ◽

Immigrant And Refugee ◽

Height For Age ◽

Weight For Age

A semilongitudinal study on growth and development was initiated on immigrant and refugee school-aged children in San Francisco. Anthropometric values (height, weight, arm circumference, and triceps and subscapular skinfolds) were collected soon after their arrival in the United States and repeated at 3-month intervals for 1 year. Data were analyzed by age-gender cohorts. z Score calculations for measures of height-for-age, weight-for-age, and weight-for-height demonstrated a significant overall deficiency in height-for-age and weight-for-age at the time of the first measurement. Comparisons with a US standard indicated that most of the children were between the fifth and 25th percentiles in these measures. There were fewer children who were significantly deficient in weight-for-height. Calculations for median growth rate indicated that most cohorts exhibited a median growth velocity that was close to or exceeded the median for US white children. There was also significant improvement in weight-for-age. The results indicated that these immigrant and refugee children accelerated their growth markedly in an optimum nutritional environment and were in a period of catch-up growth.

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Sustained Positive Deviant Child Care Practices and Their Effects on Child Growth in Viet Nam

Food and Nutrition Bulletin ◽

10.1177/15648265020234s204 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 23 (4_suppl2) ◽

pp. 16-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

U. Agnes Trinh Mackintosh ◽

David R. Marsh ◽

Dirk G. Schroeder

Keyword(s):

Child Growth ◽

Program Completion ◽

Viet Nam ◽

Nutrition Program ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Total N ◽

Z Scores ◽

Growth Promoting ◽

Height For Age ◽

Weight For Age

Save the Children's (SC) successful integrated nutrition program in Viet Nam, the poverty alleviation and nutrition program (PANP), uses the positive deviance (PD) approach to identify key growth promoting behaviors and provides participatory adult education allowing mothers to develop skills related to these behaviors. We investigated whether improvements seen during a PANP intervention (1993–1995) were sustained three and four years after SC's departure. Cross-sectional surveys were administered to 46 randomly selected households in four communes that had previously participated in the PANP and 25 households in a neighboring comparison community in 1998 and 1999. Two children per household, an older child who had participated in the PANP and a younger sibling who had not, were measured (total n = 142 children), and their mothers were interviewed. Older SC children tended to be better nourished than their counterparts. Their younger siblings were significantly better nourished than those in the comparison group, with adjusted mean weight-for-age Z scores of −1.82 versus −2.45 ( p = .007), weight-for-height Z scores of −0.71 versus −1.45 ( p < .001), and height-for-age Z scores of −2.11 and −2.37 (ns, p = .4), respectively. SC mothers reporting feeding the younger siblings more than their counterparts did (2.9 versus 2.2 main meals per day, p < .001, and 96.2% versus 52% offering snacks, p < .01]. SC mothers reported washing their hands “often” more than comparison mothers (100% vs. 76%, p < .001). Growth-promoting behaviors identified through PD studies and practiced through neighborhood-based rehabilitation sessions persisted years after program completion. These sustained behaviors contributed to better growth of younger siblings never exposed to the program.

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Pathway Analysis of Growth Faltering Pattern Based on Height for Age in Children Under Five in Indonesia Based on Indonesian National Health Survey 2013

Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology ◽

10.3177/jnsv.66.s244 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 66 (Supplement) ◽

pp. S244-S250

Author(s):

Ina KUSRINI ◽

Donny Kristanto MULYANTORO ◽

Sri SUPADMI

Keyword(s):

Pathway Analysis ◽

National Health ◽

Health Survey ◽

National Health Survey ◽

Children Under Five ◽

Under Five ◽

Growth Faltering ◽

Height For Age

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A microbiological evaluation of medicinal plants used by the Maya people of Southern Mexico

Phytotherapy Research ◽

10.1002/ptr.2650090403 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 244-250 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Mariana Meckes ◽

Ma. Luisa Villarreal ◽

Jaime Tortoriello ◽

Brent Berlin ◽

Eloise Ann Berlin

Keyword(s):

Medicinal Plants ◽

Southern Mexico ◽

Maya People

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MALNUTRITION IN THE WORLD'S CHILDREN

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.43.1.131 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 131-133

Author(s):

George M. Wheatley ◽

Louis K. Diamond ◽

Lytt I. Gardner ◽

Clifford G. Grulee ◽

Robert N. Hamburger ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Young Children ◽

National Development ◽

Retarded Child ◽

The United States ◽

Child Growth ◽

World Population ◽

Child Victims ◽

Protein Calorie Malnutrition

Protein-Calorie malnutrition coupled with infection is the greatest killer of infants and young children and the major cause of retarded child growth and development in today world. It has been estimated that by 1968 there would be 276,000,000 child victims of serious malnutrition in 29 developing countries. Its greatest toll is during the weaning period and in children below the age of 2 years. Some of these young children will die. Others, who survive severe disease, may sustain brain damage which impairs learning, limits achievement, and condemns them to the fate of their parents, thus perpetuating a cycle which interferes with national development itself. The occurrence of protein-calorie malnutrition is not limited to developing countries, particular ethnic groups, or tropical climates. This affliction is found in the United States, although less frequently and rarely in extreme degree when compared to developing countries. More accurate information about its prevalence in the United States will soon be available. The causes of protein-calorie malnutrition can be described within a variety of different conceptual frameworks: political, economic, educational, socio-cultural, agricultural, industrial, and medical-nutritional. The interrelation of the size of the world population and its food supply is so vital a factor that inadequate programs of family planning increase the likelihood of malnutrition. Programs to eliminate malnutrition must be delineated within these different frameworks, and each must be brought into appropriate collaboration with the others. Obviously, no statement of ours can cover this multiplicity of factors completely. We can speak only as pediatricians to whom any degree of malnutrition is unacceptable.

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Anthropometric Characteristics of Children Living in Food Insecure Households in the United States

Public Health Nutrition ◽

10.1017/s1368980021002378 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-24

Author(s):

Francis A. Tayie ◽

Lea Anne Lambert ◽

Richmond N. Aryeetey ◽

Beibei Xu ◽

Gabrielle Brewer

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

The United States ◽

National Sample ◽

Population Based ◽

Child Growth ◽

Cluster Sampling ◽

Upper Arm ◽

Double Burden ◽

Upper Arm Length

Abstract Objective: This study provides information on food insecurity and child malnutrition in a technologically advanced nation. Design: Population-based study using multistage probability cluster sampling design to collect survey data. Multivariable regression models were used to determine associations between food security status and various malnutrition indices. Setting: We used a national sample from the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2014. Participants: The anthropometric and demographic datasets of 4,121 children <7 years old were analyzed for this study. Results: Food insecure infants younger than 6 months had shorter upper arm length (−0.4 cm, p=0.012) and smaller mid-upper arm circumference (−0.5 cm, p=0.004), likewise those aged 6 months-1 year who had shorter upper arm length (−0.4 cm, p=0.008), body length (−1.7 cm, p=0.007) and lower body weight (−0.5 kg, p=0.008). Food insecure children younger than 2 years were more likely to be underweight (OR: 4.34; 95% CI: 1.99-9.46) compared to their food secure counterparts. Contrarywise, food insecure children older than 5 years were more likely to be obese (OR: 3.12; 95% CI: 1.23-7.96). Conclusion: Food insecurity associates with child growth deficits in the United States. Food insecure infants and young children are generally smaller and shorter, whereas older children are heavier than their food secure counterparts, implying a double burden of undernutrition-overnutrition associated with child food insecurity. Child food and nutrition programs to improve food insecurity should focus on infants and children in the transition ages.

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Association of Plasma Total Cysteine and Anthropometric Status in 6–30 Months Old Indian Children

Nutrients ◽

10.3390/nu12103146 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 3146

Author(s):

Catherine Schwinger ◽

Ranadip Chowdhury ◽

Shakun Sharma ◽

Nita Bhandari ◽

Sunita Taneja ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Child Growth ◽

New Delhi ◽

Indian Children ◽

Growth Standards ◽

High Quality Protein ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Z Scores ◽

Anthropometric Status ◽

Height For Age

High-quality protein has been associated with child growth; however, the role of the amino acid cysteine remains unclear. The aim was to measure the extent to which plasma total cysteine (tCys) concentration is associated with anthropometric status in children aged 6–30 months living in New Delhi, India. The study was a prospective cohort study including 2102 children. We calculated Z-scores for height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ), or weight-for-age (WAZ) according to the WHO Child Growth Standards. We used multiple regression models to estimate the association between tCys and the anthropometric indices. A high proportion of the children were categorized as malnourished at enrolment; 41% were stunted (HAZ ≤ −2), 19% were wasted (WHZ ≤ −2) and 42% underweight (WAZ ≤ −2). Plasma total cysteine (tCys) was significantly associated with HAZ, WHZ and WAZ after adjusting for relevant confounders (p < 0.001). Low tCys (≤25th percentile) was associated with a decrease of 0.28 Z-scores for HAZ, 0.10 Z-scores for WHZ, and 0.21 Z-scores for WAZ compared to being >25th percentile. In young Indian children from low-to-middle socioeconomic neighborhoods, a low plasma total cysteine concentration was associated with an increased risk of poor anthropometric status.

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