Large within subject variance in childhood cognitive ability scores of Guatemalan high SES individuals born 1943-1953 [Abstract]

Large within subject variance in childhood cognitive ability scores of Guatemalan high SES individuals born 1943-1953 [Abstract

Life course associations of height, weight, fatness, grip strength, and all-cause mortality for high socioeconomic status Guatemalans

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between physical growth in pre-adult life with five outcomes at age 64-76: weight, body mass index, estimated body fat percentage, hand grip strength and mortality. Methods: Super-Imposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) growth curves of 40,484 Guatemalan individuals aged 3-19 years were modelled for the parameters of size, timing and intensity (peak growth velocity, e.g. cm/year) of height, weight, body mass index, and grip strength. Associations between the SITAR parameters and old age outcomes were tested using linear and binary logistic regression for a follow-up sample of high socioeconomic status (SES) Guatemalans, of whom 50 were aged 64-76 years old at re-measurement and 45 died prior to the year 2017. Results: SITAR models explained 69-98% of the variance in each outcome, with height the most precise. Individuals in the follow-up sample who had a higher BMI before age 20 years had higher estimated body fat (B=1.4 CI -0.02-2.8) and BMI (B=1.2, CI 0.2-2.2) at the ages 64-76 years. Those who grew slower in height but faster in weight and BMI before age 20 years, had higher BMI and body fat later in life. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of a life course perspective on health and mortality risk. Childhood exposures leading to variation in pre-adult growth may be key to better understanding health and mortality risks in old age

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

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

Inequalities in adiposity trends between 1979 and 1999 in Guatemalan children

Background: Guatemala suffered from civil war and high levels of inequality and childhood stunting in the second half of the 20th century, but little is known about inequalities in secular trends in adiposity.Objectives: To investigate differences in childhood body mass index (BMI) and skinfold thickness trajectories from 1979 to 1999 between three groups of children: High socioeconomic position (SEP) Ladino, Low SEP Ladino, and Low SEP Indigenous Maya.Methods: The sample comprised 19 346 children aged 7–17 years with 54 638 observations. The outcomes were height, BMI, triceps skinfold thickness (TST), and subscapular skinfold thickness (SST) Z-scores according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) references. Sex-specific multilevel models were used to estimate and compare mean trajectories from 1979 to 1999 between the three groups.Results: Mean Z-scores were always highest for High SEP Ladino children and lowest for Low SEP Maya children. Despite their very short stature, the Low SEP groups had SST trajectories that were above the 50th centile. The BMI trajectories were relatively flat and within one major centile band of the CDC median, with differences between the three groups that were small (0.2–0.3 Z-scores) and did not attenuate over time. Conversely, the TST Z-score trajectories demonstrated larger positive secular trends (e.g., from −1.25 in 1979 to −0.06 in 1999 for Low SEP Maya boys), with differences between the three groups that were large (0.5–1.2 Z-scores) and did attenuate over time (in boys). Secular trends and between-group difference in the SST Z-score trajectories were less pronounced, but again we found stronger evidence in boys that the estimated inequalities attenuated over time.Conclusions: Secular trends and inequalities in skinfolds differ from those for BMI in Guatemalan children. Differences between groups in skinfolds attenuated over time, at least in boys, but whether this is good news is questionable given the very short stature yet relatively large subscapular skinfolds of the Low SEP groups.</p

Large within subject variance in childhood cognitive ability scores of Guatemalan high SES individuals born 1943-1953 [Poster]

Large within subject variance in childhood cognitive ability scores of Guatemalan high SES individuals born 1943-1953 [Poster