Exposure to improved nutrition from conception to age 2 years and adult cardiometabolic disease risk: a modelling study

Publication date: August 2018Source: The Lancet Global Health, Volume 6, Issue 8Author(s): Nicole D Ford, Jere R Behrman, John F Hoddinott, John A Maluccio, Reynaldo Martorell, Manuel Ramirez-Zea, Aryeh D SteinSummaryBackgroundLow-income and middle-income countries with populations that are chronically undernourished in early life are undergoing a nutrition transition and are experiencing an epidemic of cardiometabolic disease. These dual burdens are thought to be causally related; therefore, the extent to which improvements in early-life nutrition can offset adult-onset disease is important. The aim of this study was to examine whether improvement of protein-energy nutrition from conception to age 2 years can attenuate the risk of cardiometabolic disease.MethodsWe followed up a cohort of 2392 individuals born between Jan 1, 1962, and Feb 28, 1977, in four villages in Guatemala who had participated in a cluster-randomised protein-energy nutritional supplementation (Atole) trial. Of 1661 participants available for follow-up from Feb 26, 2015, to April 29, 2017, we studied 684 women and 455 men. We assessed cardiometabolic disease risk at ages 37–54 years using anthropometry, fasting and post-challenge glucose, fasting lipid concentrations, and blood pressure. We used generalised linear and logistic regression modelling to estimate the effect of Atole from conception to age 2 years (the first 1000 days) on cardiometabolic disease risk.FindingsExposure to Atole from conception...
Source: The Lancet Global Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research