IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.70.12.1277_5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nutrition and cognitive development among rural Guatemalan children

Author

Listed:
  • Freeman, H.E.
  • Klein, R.E.
  • Townsend, J.W.
  • Lechtig, A.

Abstract

Women and children from 4 Guatemalan villages participated in a voluntary food supplementation program for 7 years. In 2 of the villages, they received a vitamin and mineral fortified, high-protein calorie supplement. In the other 2 villages, the vitamin-mineral fortified supplement contained no protein and a relatively small number of calories. Cognitive tests were administered regularly to children ages 3 to 7, and anthropometric measures obtained. In addition, measures of families' social milieu were collected at several points in time. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that both nutritional and social environmental measures are related to various dimensions of cognitive competence. The results suggest that nutritional intake, independent of social factors, affects cognitive development. There is also some evidence that the children who receive the high-protein calorie supplement (and whose mothers received it during pregnancy and lactation) are more likely to score high in cognitive performance. Our results, while not diminishing social environmental explanations of differences in cognitive function, suggest benefits from nutrition intervention programs in rural areas of lesser-developed countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Freeman, H.E. & Klein, R.E. & Townsend, J.W. & Lechtig, A., 1980. "Nutrition and cognitive development among rural Guatemalan children," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 70(12), pages 1277-1285.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.70.12.1277_5
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.70.12.1277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.70.12.1277
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.70.12.1277?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Fernanda Laus & Lucas Duarte Manhas Ferreira Vales & Telma Maria Braga Costa & Sebastião Sousa Almeida, 2011. "Early Postnatal Protein-Calorie Malnutrition and Cognition: A Review of Human and Animal Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-23, February.
    2. Figlio, David N. & Winicki, Joshua, 2005. "Food for thought: the effects of school accountability plans on school nutrition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 381-394, February.
    3. Korenman, Sanders & Miller, Jane E. & Sjaastad, John E., 1995. "Long-term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 127-155.
    4. S. Korenman & J. E. Miller & J. E. Sjaastad, "undated". "Long- term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1044-94, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.70.12.1277_5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.