ArticlePloS one2022
Are early childhood stunting and catch-up growth associated with school age cognition?-Evidence from an Indian birth cohort.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Childhood stunting and cognitive development: a meta-analysis.Journal of global health · 2025Pooled it
- Do physical fitness and motor skill performances in underweight children differ from normal weight peers? A meta-analysis.BMC pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- Trial
- Double burden of malnutrition by mid-childhood in an Indian birth cohort: a longitudinal study (2010-2021).The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2026Article
- Growth and cognition over eight years in three sites of the MAL-ED cohort study.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Validation of the Child Development Card (KKA) as a growth and development tool for stunted and normal children in West Java, Indonesia.Global health action · 2025Article
- Perinatal omega-3 sex-selectively mitigates neuropsychiatric impacts of prenatal THC in the cortico-striatal-hippocampal circuit.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Catch-up growth following early-life stunting in a low-resource area in rural Tanzania: the MAL-ED Metabolic study.BMJ open · 2025Observational
- The effect of early childhood stature on later cognitive functions in Indonesian adolescents: comparation using the National growth reference and the WHO growth standard.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- A non-specialist worker delivered digital assessment of cognitive development (DEEP) in young children: A longitudinal validation study in rural India.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Executive functions and associated brain volumetry in children with persistent stunting and catch-up growth.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Maternal dietary patterns, breastfeeding duration, and their association with child cognitive function and head circumference growth: A prospective mother-child cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2025Article
- Childhood brain morphometry in children with persistent stunting and catch-up growth.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Structured early childhood education exposure and childhood cognition - Evidence from an Indian birth cohort.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Correlates of early child development among children with stunting: A cross-sectional study in Uganda.Maternal & child nutrition · 2024Article
- Measurement of cognition and profiling early learning environments in India, Indonesia and Senegal: a UKRI GCRF Action Against Stunting Hub protocol paper.BMJ paediatrics open · 2024Article
- Long-term effects of child nutritional status on the accumulation of health human capital.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- Study of the importance of protein needs for catch-up growth in Indonesian stunted children: a narrative review.SAGE open medicine · 2023Review
- Prevalence of diarrheagenic Escherichia coli and impact on child health in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
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10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMillions of children worldwide especially in the Asian subcontinent are vulnerable to early childhood stunting. There are contradictory reports of the association between catch-up growth in childhood and school age cognition.
methodsA community-based birth cohort recruited between 2010 and 2012 from urban slums in Vellore, India was followed up until 9 years of age. From regular anthropometric measurements, stunting status for each individual child was calculated at 2, 5 and 9 years. Cognition was assessed at 9 years of age using the Malin's Intelligence Scale for Indian Children (MISIC). Children were divided into groups based on stunting at each time point as well as catch-up growth, and a regression model was utilised to evaluate their association with cognition at 9 years.
resultsAmong 203 children included in this analysis, 94/203 (46.31%) children were stunted at 2 years of age, of whom 39.36% had a catch-up growth at 5 years of age, and 38.30% at 9 years. Around 10% of the cohort remained stunted at all time points. In the multivariable analysis, children who were stunted at 2, 5 and 9 years had a significantly lower verbal and total intelligence quotient (IQ) scores by 4.6 points compared to those who were never stunted. Children with catch up growth following stunting at 2 years had higher cognition scores than those who were persistently stunted throughout the childhood.
conclusionsThis study showed persistent stunting in childhood was associated with lowering of 4-5 IQ points in childhood cognition at 9 years of age. Recovery from early life stunting in children with catch up growth prevented further lowering of cognition scores in these children compared to persistently stunted children. Nutritional supplementation during late infancy and early toddlerhood in addition to continuing nutritional supplementation programmes for preschool and school children can improve childhood stunting and cognitive abilities in vulnerable populations.
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